


Misplaced Pirate

by BonneyJewelry



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dimension Travel, Gen, Marine Monkey D. Luffy, Mugiwara no Ichimi | Straw Hat Pirates, but not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:14:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 44,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24133417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BonneyJewelry/pseuds/BonneyJewelry
Summary: The battle is won, Kaido is defeated and Luffy is bored out of his mind. He just couldn’t sit still, could he? Now look what kinda trouble he got himself into.
Comments: 92
Kudos: 154





	1. Chapter 1

The moon was shining down on Onigashima, the whole island was eerily silent. The only sound that was heard, was the almost silent footsteps of Monkey D Luffy.

The Ninja-Pirate-Mink-Samurai Alliance had defeated the Hundert Beast Pirates about a week ago. Since then, all of them had worked hard to bring Wano back to its former glory, just like it was over 20 years ago.

Kozuki Hiyori had taken over the position as Shogun, until her older/now younger brother was of age to take over. She had initially refused, stating she wasn’t interested in the position, but later on agreed for the sake of her country.

Eustass Kid, Trafalgar D Water Law and Monkey D Luffy had come to an agreement to take Wano under their protection. Soon after, all their flags were raised in the different parts of the country. If any pirate crew was able to pass the whirlpools and reach Wano, they would have to think twice before attacking the territory of three Supernovas.

Things had been calm since then and the Straw Hat Captain was bored out of his mind. That is the reason why he had sneaked out at night, he wanted to explore the former Yonkos hideout. He was doing it in the dark of the night, so his crew couldn’t catch him and reprimand him for his reckless actions.

‘There has to be something interesting here. I don’t wanna be stuck on this island for so long without an adventure, but I also promised Tama that I wouldn’t leave without turning Wano into a place were she could eat her fill everyday.’

Luffy stepped through the tall and long corridor and checked every door he came across. He only found various bedrooms, kitchens, storage rooms and bathrooms. Just when he was about to give up and return to his crew, he came across a steel door, that was abnormally human sized, unlike all the previous doors and rooms that were obviously made for a giant like Kaido.

He tried the door knob for a second, but it was locked, so he just kicked down the steel door, ripping it from his hinges. It flew all the way to the opposite wall and crashed into it, leaving a sizable crack. 

Luffy stepped inside and inspected the seemingly empty room. Finding nothing, Luffy sighed in disappointment, before a sudden light flashed across him. He immediately focus his eyes at the crack in the wall were the light was shinning from.

‘Is there something behind this wall?’

Luffy coated his arm in armament haki, before punching straight into the wall. The already abused wall couldn’t take the strain anymore and crumbled beneath his fist. As the dust cleared, Luffy could make out a doorframe build into the wall, which was previously covered by the concrete.

Luffy stood in front of the doorframe in awe staring at the bright light shining through it. Without caution, he streched his hand out into doorway and his hand disappeared behind the wall of light.

He couldn’t feel anything behind it so the only logical idea he come up with was to step fully through the light wall and see what was lurking on the other side.

Luffy stepped through the doorway and his presence disappeared from the room the next second and the next minute it disappeared from existence.

——

Next thing he knew, he was falling, for quite a while. Luffy let out a shriek completely caught of guard by the sudden free fall. He could barely make out an island benath him and he was steadfastly approaching it.

‘This is like falling from a sky island, but I was on Onigashima just a second ago.’ He turned his head slightly to the right and saw a rectangular shape of light in the dark night sky.

‘Wait, that’s like that doorway I stepped through. Did it teleport me here?’ Luffy widened his eyes and started panicking even more, when he realized that the doorway was disappearing.

There was nothing he could do though, so he just closed his eyes, waiting for impact and hoping that he wasn’t too far from Wano, because his way of arrival was not an option for return anymore.

Luffy crashed into the ground, creating a huge crater at the moment of impact. The ruckus he created, immediately caught the few townsfolk’s attention, who were just closing their stores for the night and they gathered around him.

They whispered between them, questioning if a meteor had just hit their island. As they closer inspected the crater they found Luffys body laying still but awake in the middle. A woman shrieked in shock and a burly man asked him if he was okey. Luffy dumbly nodded his head and stood up showing that he was completely unharmed. Luffy refused the worried mans offer to bring him to the hospital, stating that he was completely fine.

“Commodore Luffy, is that you?” A voice suddenly rang from the top of the crater as a horde of Marines came running down.

Luffy stared at them confused and wary, “Ehhh, what did you just call me?”

“Oh how long we’ve searched for you Commodore, we’re so sorry that we couldn’t find you any sooner.” The Marine started bawling and soon the rest joined him.

“Ahh, wait don’t cry I’m right here so it’s fine right? But, who are you guys anyway?” Luffy asked, honestly confused why the Marines were acting like this towards him. Shouldn’t they try to capture him right about now?

“Commodore, do you not remember us? We worked in the same Marine Base for two years before you disappeared and that was only a month ago. Did those damn Pirates do something to you? Is that why you don’t remember us?”, questioned the same Marine, who looked like he was the highest ranking one in the group.

Luffys brain was working overtime. ‘Marine? Disappeared? What are they talking about and why does he keep calling me Commodore?’

“Captain, I really think we should bring him to a hospital and get him checked out, god knows what happened to him. They probably tortured him and he might have lost some of his memories because of that.” Another Marine stepped up and addressed the first one.

“Well I guess it would be good then if I introduce myself first. Luffy-san, my name is Nishida Toshio and I’m a Captain working in the G-5 branch.” The first one stated and Luffy raised his brow wondering how high the Captain position was in the Marines. He wasn’t at all familiar with their hierarchy.

“G-5? Isn’t that Smokers branch?” Luffy remembered how back in Punk Hazard, the Marines from Smokers branch were wearing uniforms with G-5 written on various parts of their clothing.

“Ah yes Vice Admiral Smoker is our highest commanding officer and you are our second one as our Commodore. Just before you disappeared, they were even gonna promote you to Rear Admiral.” The now named Nishida stated.

Luffy scratched his head feeling even more confused than before. “So you’re saying I’m a Marine Commodore working under Smoker?”

Nishida nodded his head in confirmation and questioned. “So you don’t know how you landed here right? I wonder if the Pirates dropped you off here? But you flew down from the sky. Do they have like some kind of Devil Fruit user that could have transported you into the air?”

‘Devil Fruit? Maybe that doorway was made from a Devil Fruit user and that’s how I landed in this weird place. This doesn’t explain why they keep calling me Marine though.’ Luffy mused for a few seconds before answering, “I have no idea how I landed here and I’m sorry but I think I might have really forgotten some of my memories.”

“Ah, there is no need to apologize Luffy-san. Right now we are at an island in the North Blue, this island supplies us with Kairoseki cuffs and bullets, so we were only here to restock. We never expected to find you here since you originally disappeared in the Grandline. We’ll be setting out in less than an hour to return to our base in Paradise, so we should bring you to a hospital before we leave sir.” Nishida reported dutifully.

‘The North Blue? I’m not even in the New World anymore, let alone the Grandline. I thought Smokers base was in the New World? I guess it would be for the best though if I just go with them for now. They’re going to the Grandline and I can’t navigate by myself to get there.’

The Marine Captain snapped his fingers in front of Luffys face to get back his attention. “Come on let’s go.”

Luffy followed them without another word, he felt fine and didn’t see the point of visiting a hospital, but he didn’t feel like arguing right now. Soon he was sitting on an infirmary bed, being examined by a Doctor.

Nishida gasped when Luffy opened the top part of his kimono and showed them his chest. “Holy..., what did they do to you Luffy-san?”

The Doctor took a closer look at the big x-shaped scar. “It looks like a really old burn mark, maybe a year or two old. Did he not have this before?”

The Captain looked stumped for a second. “Well if it’s that old, then he probably already had it. It’s not like I saw him topless before, so he might have already had it when he got kidnapped. The scar beneath his eye is definitely new, I’m sure of that.”

“Well it seems like they are completely healed though and he doesn’t have any open injuries that I can tend to. If he really forgot his memories because of a head injury, than that one has already healed too, because I can’t find anything wrong with his head in my scans. I would just advise you to bring him to his family or his close friends. They might trigger his memories or they might just never come back. I’m sorry but there is nothing I can really do.” The Doctor reported while Luffy pulled back on his kimono and put his hat on its rightful place.

“Well thank you for the check up, come on Commodore let’s go.” He motioned for Luffy to follow him and they met back up with the rest of the crew on the Marine ship.

“Wow this ship is so much bigger than the Sunny, but still smaller than the big Warships I’ve seen.” Luffy walked around in wonder and was pretty disappointed when he realized that it didn’t have a figurehead that he could sit on.

“We’ll be going through Reverse Mountain and we have an eternal pose to Drum Island so that’s were we will be stocking up for food before we continue to our base.” Reported a Marine with dark blue hair who was, if Luffy remembered correctly, the right hand man of Captain Nishida. Luffy just dubbed him as Blue since he wasn’t bothered to learn anymore of their names. 

‘Drum Island? That’s were we got Chopper from. I wonder how Doctor Kureha and Dalton are doing?’

“Commodore, were gonna have a late dinner, come eat something.” Blue called, grabbing Luffys attention at the mention of dinner.

He followed the smell of food and barged into the kitchen. In minutes he had empty plates stacked next to him and he wasn’t stopping anytime soon.

A circle had formed around him, watching in fascination as Luffy devoured food in ungodly speeds.

“I never saw him eat this much food before, did they starve him or something?”

“I’m sure they didn’t feed him like a prized guest, but for him to be eating like a starved animal is still quite a surprise.”

“Where does he put it all?”

Nishida came in and dispersed the group. He took a full plate for himself and sat across Luffy. “I contacted Vice Admiral Smoker, told him that we found you and that you don’t seem to remember any of us.”

Luffy slowed down his eating, to answer him in between his bites. “Does that mean Smokey isn’t mad at me? He isn’t gonna put me into prison the second he sees me?”

“Smokey?... and no of course he won’t. He isn’t mad at you for getting captured, it wasn’t your fault. Contrary, he was really worried and has been searching for you for the whole month that you were missing. He only came back to the base a few days ago to check on us and get some paperwork done. He was supposed to set out today to search for you again, so I called him to report that you were with us and that we were on our way back to the base.”

Luffy grinned mirthfully, “So Smokey was that worried about me? I’ll have to give him a big hug when we get there.”

He absolutely had no idea why they thought he was a Marine, but if Smoker thought the same, than something was definitely wrong. These Marines might have mixed him up with someone else, but Smoker would recognize him as the Pirate he really is. ‘I guess I’ll just have to meet him and see if he knows what’s going on.’

Luffy finished his meal and went to the bedroom that the Captain had said was his.

Stepping into the room, the first thing he saw was a Marine Coat, with the kanji for Justice written on it. He tried it on and looked into the mirror. “Shishsishi its my size, but it looks ridiculous on me.” He pulled it off and dropped it on the back of the chair. A few photo frames were on the desk that pulled his attention.

Luffys eyes widened when he saw himself on the pictures. Luffy, who looked around 12 years old, was sitting on a stool bar and Makino was standing behind it, giving the excited Luffy a plate full of meat. On another picture he was posing with his grandfather and next to him was a girl, of about the same age as him, with orange hair.

She also appeared in a few other pictures and only after seeing a picture of her and himself when he was 17 years old, did he realize that it was his navigator that he was looking at. They were both dressed in a Marine uniform and Garp was standing on the sidelines looking proud. The words “First day as Marines”, was scribbled on the bottom.

“Nami? No, that can’t be. Maybe I’m not the only one who has a lookalike? But gramps and Makino are in these too.” Luffy mused before yawning, he realized that he hadn’t slept all night and that the sun was gonna come up soon. He placed the photo frames back on the table and dived beneath the covers.

‘I should have just stayed with my crew instead of exploring and landing myself into this mess.’ 

The frown on his face slowly disappeared, he snuggled under the blanket and soon fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment with your thoughts. 💭 I love reading them. It definitely motivates me to write more.


	2. Chapter 2

A loud crash sounded, before the ship swayed dangerously to the side, causing Luffy to roll out of bed and land on the floor.

“Uff, what’s going on?” He stood up to the sound of canon fire and screaming. He ran out off the room and was greeted by the sight of Marines frantically trying to man their cannons and swerve the ship away from the incoming cannon balls.

Luffy looked out to the ocean, to see who was attacking them. The sight that greeted him, was of a giant snail with what looked like buildings on top of it. What really caught Luffys attention was the sail on the mast, it had the number 66 written across it.

‘Wait, that’s the Germa 66, Sanji’s family!’ Luffy ran up to Nishida who was ordering the Marines around.

“Why are the Germa attacking us?” Luffy questioned catching a cannonball with his hand and throwing it back like a baseball.

“They have an agreement with the World Government where neither of us interfere with the others business. I’m guessing we somehow sailed off course and into their territory, so they saw us as a threat. Get ready Commander, they’re coming.” The Captain pointed upwards and Luffy saw the Vinsmoke siblings flying towards them in their raid suits. 

They soon landed on deck and immediately engaged in a fight with the Marines.

‘One, two, three, four.... five. Five? Wait, that’s Reiju, that’s Ichiji, Niji, Yonji and... Sanji?’

One of them was wearing a full black Raid Suit with a yellow number 3 on his cloak. Luffy had only seen this once before, when Sanji had reluctantly used it in the fight against the Tobiroppo.

While Luffy was distracted, he got attacked by none other than Stealth Black himself. Surprised Luffy dodged the Punch that was aiming for his face.

Eyes wide Luffy kept dodging every kick and punch that was send his way. ‘Why is Sanji attacking me? Is this even Sanji? He never uses his hands while fighting.’

The next second Sanji disappeared from his sight and Luffy looked confused, thinking that the enemy had gotten bored with his dodging and went to fight with someone else.

His observation haki spiked, warning him from an incoming attack from the side. Luffy narrowed his eyes, grabbed the arm and flung the invisible man into the wall.

A quite groan and thud could be heard as the body slid to the ground. He wasn’t down for long though, as Luffy had to doge a frontal attack, by stepping backwards.

Luffy closed his eyes since his sight was no help for him against the invisible Vinsmoke. Blows were traded as Luffy fully focused on his observation haki to “see” his opponent.

Luffy was getting irritated by the situation and decided to stop the fight with a armament punch to the gut.

Stealth Black flew to the ground and Luffy used that chance to sit on his chest and immobilize him. Luffy glared down at him, “Show yourself, now!”

The form beneath him wavered, before turning back into his cloaked form. Luffy took that chance and pushed down his mask.

The face that greeted him was undeniably that of his Cook. “Sanji...why?”

The blond Vinsmoke glared up at Luffy. “Why what? Also, get off me you Marine scum.” Sanji struggled, trying to free himself, but Luffy only tightened his grip on him.

“Sanji! You know me, I’m not a Marine. I’m a Pirate, you’re a Pirate god damit, you’re my nakama! Why are you acting like this? Are you trying to leave the crew again? Do you hate being a Pirate this much? I thought you said you wanted to return back to us, back to the Sunny.” Luffys voice broke near the end and his grip wavered.

Sanji took the opportunity and pushed the self proclaimed Pirate of him. He jumped back and looked at him like he was crazy.

“Are you mental or something? I don’t fucking know who you are and I’m not on your fucking crew, you Marine or Pirate or whatever the fuck you are.” Sanji pulled back his mask on and took another step back when Luffy took one towards him.

“Sanji, come on let’s go, Father ordered us to return home. We’re gonna have to retreat from this fight.” rang Nijis voice, as a blue lighting streaked past the duo.

Sanji took a last look at Luffy and without another word, run after his brother. Luffy watched them leave with a blank look on his face. He ignored Captain Toshios, “Are you alright Commodore?” and retreated to his room.

He laid down on the bed and stared blankly at the ceiling. ‘That wasn’t Sanji, at least not the one I know.’ 

Luffy turned his head to look at the orange haired girls picture on the table. ‘That isn’t Nami, at least not the one I know.

Lastly he looked at the Marine coat draped across the chair. ‘And that, that isn’t my coat, because I’m not a Marine, but someone else who looks just like me and has my name is and that’s his coat.’

‘I am not in my world, am I? This is some kind of mystery place. The same people are here, but they are also different. That means there is a copy of me somewhere that is a Marine. I don’t think I will find my crew if I sail all the way to Wano. How am I gonna return? I don’t like this place at all.’ Luffy wrapped the covers around him and rolled into a ball.

He stayed like that for another hour until someone knocked on his door. “Luffy-san, I don’t know what’s going on with you, but it looks like you you need some alone time. I left breakfast in front of your door, so please eat that. If your not out by the time for lunch, I’ll bring you some food then too.”

Tsuda Michi aka Blue was about to leave, when the door opened and Luffy picked up the plater. “Thank you Blue, I’m fine and will be out by lunch.” Luffy grinned at him and Tsuda nodded his head before returning to his own room. 

Luffy shut the door behind him and sat at his desk to eat his breakfast. “At least the Marines are nice here.” Luffy murmured to himself and dug in.

Luffy left his room an hour before lunch and spend the rest of the day questioning Captain Toshio and Lieutenant Michi about the seemingly most random things.

“Is there a crew called the Straw Hat Pirates?”

“What? No. Where did you hear that from? Also that sounds like the least threatening crew name I have ever heard.”

“Do I have a Devil Fruit?”

“Isn’t that something you should know or did you forget that too? ... No, as far as I know you didn’t eat a Devil Fruit.”

“Who are the four Yonko?”

“Shanks, Kaido, Big Mom and Whitebeard. This hasn’t changed in over a decade.”

“How did I get kidnapped?”

Nishida paused for a second and looked over to Tsuda, who only shrugged back.

“Well, you and a few of our men were send on a mission to investigate a disturbance on an island not too far away from our base. We stayed in touch for the first three days, but when you guys stopped answering our calls, we send a backup ship to your location. When they got there, they only found the corpses of our men on shore. Your body was the only one missing. They questioned the townspeople, but the only information they could get out of them was that they only saw a few pirates loitering around a few hours prior. When they heard the sounds of battle they all hid in their homes and never went to check what had happened out of fear. We concluded that you were either dead or kidnapped. Smoker-san ordered us too search for you for a whole week, but when we couldn’t find any trace of you he took over the search himself. Since we found you like this, we still don’t know who kidnapped you and I fear we may never find out either.”

The next few days went by relatively quit and uneventful. Luffy bugged everyone to play with him and on the off chance that no one was free, he spend his time fishing.

The only interesting thing that happened was going through Reverse Mountain, but even then it wasn’t as fun without his nakama with him.

Ever since he’d seen Sanji, he couldn’t stop thinking about how his other crew members turned out in this world. The thought of them being as different as Sanji hurt him, even though he knew they weren’t technically his crew.

“Land ahoy!” the lookout shouted.

Luffy snapped his head up and rushed over to the railing, to see the island.

“Drum Island” Luffy looked on in wonder at the island he had visited over two years ago.

“Go put on some warm clothes Luffy-san, we wouldn’t want you to catch a cold right?” Tsuda said, standing next to Luffy in a blue winter jacket that was darker than his hair color.

“Blue really fits you Tsuda.” Luffy grinned, using the Lieutenants name for the first time since they met. The whole trip he had called him Blue and irritated the hell out of him.

“So you finally learned my name huh?” Tsuda smiled back.

“Yes, but I’ll keep using Blue because I like it more and you keep wearing blue anyway so it fits you.”

Luffy ran back to his room ignoring Blue shouting behind him that it was part of the Marine uniform.

Luffy came back out dressed in pair of jeans, a red fluffy sweater and a black coat with a white fur line on the collar. He really appreciated the fact that none of the clothes had any Marine logos on them.

Tsuda raised his brow at his choice of clothing. “I know you never liked wearing the uniform, but you never left the ship or base without your Marine cloak.”

Luffy remembered the cloak he hand tossed on his chair and he was absolutely not ready to wear it. “I... I thought it wouldn’t be warm enough for this weather.”

The Lieutenant looked at him doubtfully. “If you say so... We’re gonna be here for about three hours, so please be back by that time.”

“Yes, yes don’t worry.” Luffy grinned back and grabbed the railing, ready to stretch back and slingshot himself to the island. He froze the next second, when he remembered the tiny detail that apparently his counterpart didn’t have a Devil Fruit.

Luffy sighed dejected and walked down the plank that the Marines had set up. He would have to actively remember that he isn’t supposed to stretch and definitely avoid the sea. There might be a chance that no one will come to save him, if he falls in, since he is “not” an Anchor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment with your thoughts. 💭 I love reading them. It definitely motivates me to write more.


	3. Chapter 3

It had been an hour since they had docked at Drum Island and Luffy had spent it looking for any signs of Chopper. Since Luffys counterpart hadn’t become a Pirate, he probably also hadn’t gathered his own crew. From the pictures on his desk, it seemed like he only knew this worlds Nami. The chance that Chopper was still on Drum Island was pretty high, but he couldn’t sense him anywhere.

While running through the island, he passed by Captain Toshio, who was about to go enter one of the bars. “Ah Nishida, I have some questions.”

Nishida nodded once, signaling for him to go ahead.

“Did anything noteworthy happen on this island? Like any tyrant kings causing mayhem or something?”

The Captain looked at him blankly and said, “You always have the weirdest formulated questions. But yes, there was a tyrant king, I guess you can call him. Not really sure what he was doing that made him a tyrant. I just heard that he died, because someone definitely put poison in his meal. So some kind of successful assassination attempt. They never found out who it was, but Drum Island has been prospering since. Seems like they don’t need a King to rule over them. They’re a free and independent island, allied with or enemies with no one.”

Luffys brain processed everything before following the Captain into the bar. This outcome was definitely way different then last time and he wondered what else was different in this world, aside from the obvious Sanji. Luffy scowled, remembering the hostile encounter against his cook. ‘I hope this doesn’t mean that some of the others will be my enemy too.’

“What can I get for you, young man?”

Luffy looked up from where he was sitting next to Nishida on a barstool. A man in his, what looked like, 40s was standing on the other side of the counter, with a smile on his face.

Luffy smiled back and ordered tons of meat without specifying what kind. The waiter chuckled a little before turning his back to them and entering a room which had simply the word “Kitchen” written on the door.

“So are we going straight to the base after this?” Luffy questioned the Captain.

“Yes, we’ll have to ask Vice Admiral Smoker about your situation. He’ll decide from then on, how we’re gonna proceed with you.”

At Luffys confused expression, he elaborated, “I don’t think you’re immediately gonna be able to go back into working, at least not in a leadership position. You’ll probably tag along on some missions, before you regain your memories. After that you’ll probably get promoted to Rear Admiral, like it was planned before you went MIA.”

Luffy wanted to ask what would happen if he/his counterpart didn’t regain his memories, but he wasn’t planning to stay here long enough to find out. He would only stay with the Marines until he could find more information about the light portal or until he found a better source of information.

A steaming plate was placed in front of Luffy and he immediately dug into the food, after thanking the waiter. After finishing his first plate he looked up to order more but something caught his peripheral vision and he turned his head slightly to the left. He set his eyes on it and immediately turned ghost white. Luffys whole body started to shudder and he covered his mouth trying to stop the bile from rising to his throat. He jumped down his stool and ran out the bar, ignoring the Captain shouting after him.

Luffy ran for a few minutes and soon crumbled to the snowy ground. He emptied out his stomach and rolled away from his vomit. He laid still for long minutes, the falling snow started covering him, but he didn’t move to push any off.

The cold was biting into his tear streaked cheeks but Luffy didn’t care and remained laying there for half an hour until Blue found him and carried him back to the ship, without any questions.

“How is he doing?” Nishida asked Toshio, after he put Luffy to bed.

“A little longer out there and he might have gotten frostbite. He’s bundled up right now and we should bring him some food soon, since he also vomited his last meal.” Toshio supplied helpfully.

The Captain looked at the closed door of Luffys room. “I don’t understand why this happened. We were just eating at the bar not even an hour ago, suddenly he looks up and a second later he flees. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the foods fault like the waiter was scared of. I looked around to see what could have triggered such a reaction from him, but the only thing I saw besides the other customers were some creepy taxidermies.”

Toshio rose his brow in interest. “Taxidermy? Did any of them look scary or different?”

“I’m pretty sure the Commodore has seen dead animals before, so that shouldn’t have scared him. The only thing I found was off, was that one mounted head of a reindeer, with a blue nose.”

“Blue nose? You mean like painted?”

“I don’t know, I asked the waiter about it and he said he bought it in a shop a year or two ago. The shopkeeper had apparently sworn that he hadn’t painted the nose and that it was all natural or something. Sounds pretty ridiculous to me.” 

The two marines walked away continuing their conversation while ordering the marines to set sail.

——

Luffy woke up to a dark and silent room. He stretched out and looked back at the photo frames on the table. ‘Nami.... are you at least alright? Sanji definitely isn’t and Chopper is....’ Luffy couldn’t finish his thoughts.

Luffy spent the next few days roaming around the ship, fishing or doodling random things on an empty notebook he found. He kept away from the marines and only interacted with them when it was absolutely necessary. He ignored or averted all questions the Captain asked about the day in the bar. The first time in his life, Luffy actively avoided people, he wanted to be alone.

The next time they docked, it was at an island Luffy didn’t remember ever visiting before, on his journey through paradise. He followed the marines to the huge blue building with G-5 written in bold black letters on the front.

“Luuuffyyyy” rang out a voice and suddenly Luffy had someone wrapped around him.

Surprised by the seemingly random embrace, he focused his eyes at the ginger in his arms.

A smile bloomed across his face and he happily hugged back his navigator. Even if this was only her counterpart, Luffy could sense that she was a nice person and definitely a friend of his counterpart.

Nami pulled her head back and stared right into his face, Luffy was surprised to see the tear streaks on it. “You idiot, why did you go and get yourself kidnapped and for a whole fricking month? Do you know how worried I was?”

Luffy smiled back at her. “I’m sorry Nami, but believe me when I say it wasn’t my plan to get captured. I don’t even remember anything that happened in the last month and I’m missing a lot from before too, so forgive me when I act weird or different.”

Luffy was planning to use the amnesia card as long as possible. It would be bad if they asked him anything about marines or past events that he wasn’t apart of.

Nami grabbed his wirst and started pulling him inside the base. “Well at least you remember me and that’s the most important thing right?”

“How can I forget my childhood friend?” Luffy remembered the pictures on the ship and how Nami and he seemingly knew each other when they were kids.

“Right answer, I would have definitely punched you if you said anything else.” Nami clenches her fist, shaking it in front of his face.

Luffy shuddered, wondering if her punch hurt as much as his navigators. Some days he could swear she knew how to use haki, how else would a punch hurt a rubber man?

Nami rambled on and Luffy didn’t really pay attention until he heard her say, “Vice Admiral Smoker!”

A shadow fell on top of them and he looked up, just to see the tall silver haired, smoking Vice Admiral.

Smoker and Luffy stared each other down and when the Pirate saw the Marine move his hand, he expected a hit. Before Luffy could step back to avoid the attack, Smoker settle his hand on top of his head and ruffled his hair. Astonished, he looked to Nami and she only smiled back at them. 

“It’s good to have you back Luffy.” Smoker said, pulling his hand away. A small but genuine smile pulled at his lips. “Go get something to eat and some sleep. I want to see you in my office tomorrow at 1 p.m. and someone get him a Marine coat or something.” Smoker said after seeing Luffy wearing only a red shirt and black jean shorts.

“Don’t worry Smoker-san, I’ll take care of him.” Nami winked, motioning the baffled Luffy to follow her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment with your thoughts. 💭 I love reading them. It definitely motivates me to write more.


	4. Chapter 4

“Ahhh, I still can’t get used to wearing this. The coat should be fine I guess. Nami did mention that my counterpart used to only wear the coat too.” Luffy complained pulling off the Marine uniform and tossing it to the side.

He put the coat on over a simple red shirt and some black pants. Looking in the mirror, he made sure that the shirt fully covered his x-shaped scar.

Luffy left the room after putting on his hat. Nami was standing on the other side with her arms crossed, waiting patiently.

“Oh, you were waiting for me?”

“Of course, I told you yesterday that I would bring you to Smoker-sans office. Did you forget? Is your amnesia making you even forget things, that happened a day ago?” Nami said, worry bleeding into her voice.

“No, I remember Nami. It just slipped my mind for a second, you can bring me to his office now.”

Nami had dragged him around yesterday, the whole day, (re)introducing him to the Marines. She had probably mentioned helping him find Smokers office, but Luffy barely listened to her talk yesterday. He was way to distracted by a familiar presence that he could sense with his haki. Anytime he tried to follow it, Nami would grab him and pull him into the other direction, thinking he was gonna get lost.

“Well here we are, have fun.”

Luffy snapped back to reality from his thoughts, realized that they had already reached their destination and that Nami was leaving.

“Hey wait, where are you going? Are you not gonna come inside with me?” Luffy asked worriedly. Even though this Smoker only knew the Marine Luffy, the Pirate still couldn’t shake off the worry off an attack.

“I have some paperwork to do, you’ll be fine alone. Smoker-san may look mean, but he is a big softy.” Nami cheekily saluted and disappeared behind the corner.

“Alright whatever, it’s not like I’m scared of him.” Luffy turned back to the door and shrieked when he saw Smoker standing in the doorway.

He rose his silver brow in question, “Scared of who?”

“No one, of course.”

They stared each other down before Smoker stepped back into the room and motioned for him to follow.

Luffy sat down on the chair across Smokers desk and waited for Smoker to start talking.

Smoker also sat down in his chair and gave a heavy sigh. “So Luffy, I heard you lost part of your memories. Just tell me if you remember anything from the day you got kidnapped.”

Luffy thought over his reply and answered, “I actually don’t remember getting kidnapped at all. Neither do I remember any of my time here as a Marine. I remember Nami and grandpa from my childhood and I remember you, but not from a specific time. I just now that your name is Smoker and that you’re a Vice Admiral.”

A pained look flashed across Smokers face for a second, before it settled back to normal. “I see...”

Luffy caught the change though and asked confused, “Did I say something wrong?”

Smoker was quite for a second, seemingly deciding how he should answer. “I’m grateful that you at least remember my name, but I had hoped that my little brother wouldn’t forget about me that easily.”

...

“Eh sorry, did you just say little brother?” Luffy asked. This was not what he expected him to say.

Luffy never thought he would ever see Smoker smile, but here he was, seeing it like the third time now.

Smoker grabbed a photo frame of his desk and turned it to show him the picture. Luffy around the age of 7 was sitting on Smokers shoulders, who looked like he was barely of age. The photo had definitely been taken without their notice, since neither was fully facing the camera.

“I joined the marines when I was 18 and at the time, Vice Admiral Garp took me in as his apprentice. I came with him to Dawn Island whenever he visited you and he took this picture the first time I met you. I stayed behind a few times and you declared me as your older brother one day out of nowhere. That was 12 years ago. The moment you turned 17 you enlisted and I asked them to put you in my division. I thought I would be able to protect my little brother, but I failed didn’t I?”

The smile on his face crumbled and turned into sorrow. Luffy had always liked Smoker even when he hunted him. He is a good Marine and his heart is in the right place. This Smoker was much the same and he even was his counterparts older brother. Luffy didn’t like the expression on his face the least bit and without thinking twice he stood from his chair, walked around the desk and wrapped himself around Smoker.

He patted his back like you would to a little child. “There, there, Smokey it’s alright. I’m here now and that’s what matters right?”

Smoker chuckled beneath him and returned the hug. “You are gonna be the death of me one day, you brat.”

It felt like a thousand tiny needles were poking into Luffys heart. He felt extremely bad for deceiving him like this. His counterpart was probably still in captivity and he might even be dead. Luffy didn’t know how he was gonna leave this place, knowing it would probably crush this worried Smokers heart.

They finally let each other go and Smoker told him that he would stay in the base for a few days, just until he got used to his position as a Marine again. Afterwards Smoker would start him of with easy jobs until he was deemed fit for more dangerous ones.

“I think you could start of with help guarding our prisoners. We only have a few of them right now and none are too rowdy, but their dangerous either way, so you still have to be careful. Go back to your room and I’ll send someone later to bring you down to the cells and show you around.”

“Okey thanks Smoker-nii.” Luffy blurted out, hopping that was something that his counterpart called his brother.

Smoker simply smiled back and motioned from him to leave. Grinning, Luffy left the office and went back to his room.

Luffy rolled on the bed, bored. ‘Smoker as an older brother huh. I guess that wouldn’t be bad. This is one definitely much younger than the one in my world too.’

A sudden knock on the door interrupted his boredom and Luffy immediately sprung up to open the door.

A dark blue haired woman with red rimmed glasses and a pink marine coat was standing before him.

‘Ah I know her, she is the one who always challenges Zoro to a fight, but what’s her name?’

“Hello Commodore Luffy, I was tasked to show you the cells downstairs. I know you don’t remember a lot, so let me introduce myself. My name is Tashigi and I’m a Captain.” Tashigi smiled politely motioning for him to follow her.

“Nice to meet you Tashigi. Tell me, what do I exactly have to do down there?”

“You’ll have to make rounds every half an hour or so, just to check if the prisoners are behaving. When it’s time for food, you’ll help the cooks deliver it to the prisoners. There are other guards down there, so if you don’t know something you can just ask them.”

They both entered through a door that lead to a big corridor with cells on either side. They walked for a while, passing a few prisoners who were all seemingly behaving themselves.

“Nami will come get you when your shift is over. I have to leave now, do you have any questions before I go?”

Luffy waved her off, “No, I got this. Can’t be hard to look after some prisoners.”

Tashigi nodded once before leaving Luffy alone in the prison. He could sense multiple presences and suddenly he felt that familiar one again, from yesterday.

Luffy started walking into the direction he felt it from and this time there was no Nami to stop him.

He started picking up his pace the closer he got. The presence was way too familiar, but also different in a way, where Luffy couldn’t tell if he actually knew the person.

He came to a halt in front a prison cell, holding a single prisoner. He was hunched over with his arms resting on his knees and his head facing the floor. Luffy couldn’t make out his face, but he didn’t need to. The bright green hair was telling enough.

“Zoro” Luffy breathed out in wonder.

At Luffys voice, the head snapped up and stared into Luffys black eyes with his own two dark green ones.

They narrowed the next second and he sneered, “Did you want something?!”

“What are you here for?” Luffy asked, sitting down on the cold floor.

“What does it matter to you?” He questioned back.

“Oh just curious, I can’t sense any malicious intent from you, so I was wondering what kinda crime you could have committed.” 

“I didn’t do anything. They are accusing me of murder and I’m awaiting my sentence now. The only reason they haven’t executed me is because I’m not of age yet.” Zoro scowled, looking away from Luffys piercing eyes.

“Not of age?...”

“I’m 17.”

...

Luffys eyes widened. ‘This Zoro is two years younger then me, instead of two years older. I can sense that he is telling the truth though, I have to get him out of here somehow.’

“Wanna get out of here?”

Zoro looked up surprised at Luffys seemingly random question. “You.. I ... Of course I don’t wanna be here, but why would you help me?”

Luffy stood up from his seat and dusted his pants. “I can tell that you’re not lying about being innocent. I’ll find a way to get you out of here. True Justice will be served.”

Luffy stuck out his tongue, jokingly and turned around to continue his rounds.

“Wait, at least tell me your name, since you already know mine.” Zoro requested.

Luffy stopped, turned his head slightly to the left to face him and said, “I’m Monkey D Luffy, it’s nice to meet you Roronoa Zoro.” and continued walking away.

The next time Luffy made his rounds Zoro was napping on the uncomfortable and cold floor. Luffy stepped closer to the cell to inspect his first mates counterpart.

He looked much the same, except he was way younger looking than the first time he met his swordsman. He also didn’t have a big horizontal scar on his chest, which Luffy could see, because Zoros shirt had rode up and exposed parts of his stomach in his sleep. Most notably he still had both his eyes, unlike the 21 year old one.

‘How am I gonna get you out of here, Zoro?’ Luffy sighed. He had some planning to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment with your thoughts. 💭 I love reading them. It definitely motivates me to write more.


	5. Chapter 5

At the dinning hall in the Marine base G-5, Luffy and Nami were sitting down for some dinner.

“So, how was your first day as a guard?” Nami asked, stopping in between her bites to talk.

Luffy finished his plate and grabbed a second one, “It was alright, pretty boring though. I talked to some of them and they were kinda funny, Shishishi.”

Nami gave him a warning look, “You’re not making friends with criminals, are you?”

“What? No... except maybe Zoro. I’d like him as a friend.”

“Roronoa? Pirate Hunter Zoro?”

“They call him Pirate Hunter?” Luffy asked, remembering that, that was the same title his Swordsman had.

“Yeah, he is a bounty hunter, but he killed an innocent civilian, so thats why he is down there.” Nami stood up from her seat grabbing her empty plates.

Luffy followed her grabbing one last piece of meat from the stack, “Is there any evidence?”

Nami stopped in her tracks and turned around to face him, “I.. I don’t actually know, I wasn’t part of the group that captured him.”

Luffy looked hopefully into her eyes, “Is there a way we could find the information? Like, are there any documents about it?”

“Of course, we hold every case information in our storage rooms.”

“Can we go look for them please? I really want to find out more about his case. I don’t believe that he is someone who would kill an innocent civilian.”

Nami stared at his puppy dog eyes and sighed, “Alright fine, let me put away these dishes and we’ll go through the archives.”

“Yay, you’re the best Nami.” Luffy grinned jumping in his spot, in excitement.

“I know” Nami smiled back.

*10 minutes later*

The duo was looking through every document of the last month, trying to find Zoros case file.

“Luffy you’re looking in the wrong section. Those documents are several years old.”

“Yes, but his might have slipped in there by accident.”

“Whatever, I guess I’ll look through the right ones.”

Luffy flipped through the documents, skimming over the titles, when a familiar one caught his attention.

‘Syrup Village? Isn’t that Usopps home island?’

Luffy opened the file reading through the the papers.

‘The return of the Black Cat Pirates....Razed down a Village...No known survivors left...’

Luffys wide eyes stopped at “no survivors”

‘Usopp... I’m sorry we weren’t there for you. I just hope that by some miracle you survived.’

A silent tear streaked down his cheek, knowing that the chance that his sniper had survived where pretty low. He pulled himself back together quickly. ‘He is not my Usopp, he is the counterpart. The doubles are not my problem.’

Luffy looked up to see Nami riffling through drawer after drawer to find Zoros file and felt bad at his last thought.

“Aha, Roronoa Zoro” Nami called in triumph pulling out a case file and opening it.

Luffy pushed his earlier thoughts aside, put the old file in his hand away and eagerly ran up to her, “What does it say?”

Namis eyes quickly flitted over the text, “Hmm let’s see. Name: Roronoa Zoro, Age: 17, Occupation: Bounty Hunter,blablabla... ah here. Charged with the murder of someone called Helmeppo?”

Luffy interrupted Nami with, “Wait, Helmeppo? Isn’t he the son of Marine Captain Axe-Hand Morgan?”

Nami rose his brow in question, “You know him?”

“He is stationed on an island in the East Blue.”

‘Or was, I’m not sure if someone beat him up here.’

Nami looked back down to the file, “There, it says that Axe-Hand Morgan was the one who reported it... and since he is a Marine Captain and the father of the victim, they believed him.”

“What? Just like that? ... so why is Zoro here if he killed someone living in East Blue?”

“Apparently he was imprisoned there for two weeks, until Captain Morgan decided he didn’t want him in his base. Since Smoker-san was close by at the time, they just transferred Zoro over to his custody. That was about a month ago. I remember, that was the day we also didn’t hear anything from you and send Marines after you. Smoker wasn’t able to go, because he was still in the East Blue at the time.”

Luffy rubbed his chin, thinking out loud, “So that’s all the information we have? I should go and ask Smokey if he knows more.”

“I heard he is outside right now, in the backyard. Do you want me to bring you there?” Nami asked closing back the file and putting it back in his right place.

Luffy stood up and shook his head, “You shoved me yesterday Nami, I remember the way. You should go to sleep anyway, it’s getting really late. Thanks for the help.”

Luffy left the room and wandered out into the backyard. It was really dark outside, but he could sense Smokers presence not too far away.

Reaching his destination he could finally make out Smokers features. He was laying on a lawn chair with his eyes closed.

“People always like to lay out in the sun, but I like the dark way more. There is no annoying sunlight burning through my eyelids and the night is always more calm and silent, than the day.” Smoker blinked his eyes open and looked at, what he thinks is, his little brother.

Luffy sprawled himself into the empty seat next to him and stared up into the sky.

“You never visited me at this time of the day? Is there something you wanted to say, perhaps about your shift in the prison cells?”

Luffy smiled without moving his stare from the night sky, “Ah yes, you see, there is this one prisoner that I think doesn’t belong there.”

“You mean Roronoa Zoro right?”

Luffys lidded eyes snapped open wide and he turned his head to face Smoker, “Wha... how did you know?”

Smoker sat up from his chair in a heavy sigh, “Ever since Captain Morgan gave him over to me, I’ve had this bad feeling. Like something was wrong or off about the situation. There is absolutely no evidence or even real reason for Roronoa to kill that guy. Some of the higher ups have ordered for his execution, but I convinced them to not do it, using his age as an excuse. I know though, that the moment he turns 18, they will call for his execution. Even if they don’t, I don’t think it would be fair for him to rot in prison.”

They sat together in silence for a few minutes until the younger one spoke, “What if we go to the East Blue and give Captain Morgan a visit. Ask the Marines under him a few questions and see what kinda guy he is. They might give us valuable information.”

Luffy remembered in his world, of how the Marines practically celebrated their Captains downfall. If he is a tyrant in this world too, they would definitely snitch on him the moment they got the chance.

“I was actually thinking of doing the same thing for quite a while. I never got the chance after you got captured, but you’re back now and there is nothing really in my way to go back there.... Luffy I’ll be leaving tomorrow bright and early. You stay here and continue to look after the prisoners. The higher ups might try something while I’m gone, so look after Roronoa for me.”

Luffy jumped up from his seat in triumph, “I won’t let anything happen to him, you can trust me, Smoker-nii.”

Smoker chuckled following Luffy inside the base. They both retired to their rooms for the night.

The next day, Luffy woke up and went to the dinning hall for breakfast. He found Nami filling up her plate from the buffet and he joined her, taking a plate of the stack.

“Good morning Luffy. Did you talk with Smoker-san yesterday? I saw him leave with some others this morning.” Nami stepped to the next station to grab some eggs.

“Yes and he’s gonna go visit Morgans base to get more information. He also thinks that something is off about the situation, so I hope that he can find enough evidence to prove that Zoro is not guilty.” Luffy followed after her, trying to not tip over his tall stack of pancakes.

“You really are invested in this. I just hope for your sake that he is actually innocent, because I don’t want to see your sad face, if it turns out otherwise.” Nami sat down at an empty table and he followed suit.

Luffy smiled reassuringly and said, “Don’t worry Nami, I’m sure that he is innocent. I can tell.”

The ginger didn’t even question his certainty and just ate her breakfast.

“There is still time before your shift at the prison starts and I don’t have to be at my post for another two hours. Wanna go and spar against some new recruits after breakfast?”

A mischievous smile spread across her lips and Luffy grinned back at her. Finally he could let of some steam, he hadn’t had a good fight in along time.

After they finished their meal, they went down to the training grounds. It was filled with Marines with varying ages and ranks, training or sparing against each other.

“Heeeeeyyyy, I wanna fight. Who thinks they can take me on?” Luffy announced startling Nami at the sudden statement.

They fighting stopped for a few second as everyone simultaneously turned their heads in their direction. Several hundert of them stepped forward and grinned challengingly.

“Alright come at me with your best attacks, at the same time. If you don’t give me your best, you won’t stand a chance.”

The battle started and Luffy immediately jumped in hitting them one by one and to their surprise, knocking out most of them with a single strike. He was being extra mindful to not stretch, since his counterpart was not a Devil Fruit user like him. At one point, someone got in a hit with a giant baseball bat, but to their shock he didn’t even flinch.

Luffy jumped back, annoyed that his reach wasn’t long enough without stretching. A glint caught his eye and he turned his attention to it, just to see a red metal staff strapped to Namis back.

‘It looks like a normal staff, unlike the one my Navigator has. She must have grabbed it on the way down here.’

Luffy dogged another attack, “Nami! Can I borrow your staff for a minute?”

Nami stared surprised for a second, before grabbing her staff and throwing it in Luffys direction. He grabbed the staff from midair and twirled it skillfully before going back on the offensive. The last time he had used a staff was when he fought together with his brothers as children, but he was still skilled at it, even without practicing for years.

Nami could only watch in surprise as the Pirate absolutely decimated his opponents with a weapon she had never saw him use before.

Shortly after he returned her staff, while all his opponents lay defeated at his feet. Somewhere along the fight, the rest had joined in, when they saw their comrades loose, but their backup wasn’t enough.

“I’m sorry. It looks like I defeated them all, but you can still fight against me.”

She stared right into his eyes and vehemently shock her head, “No thank you. I think I’ll rather not fight against someone who just wiped the floor with people of higher rank than me. Were they even a challenge to you?”

Luffy thought back to his disadvantage without his stretching ability and nodded as if he even broke a sweat.

Nami sweat dropped and turned his back to him, “I think I’ll call the the medics just incase. You can go down to the cells, your shift will start soon.”

Luffy nodded and ran to the kitchen to grab some snacks on the way to the cells. He was sure they weren’t serving the best food down there for their prisoners and Luffy felt bad eating good food while Zoro was down there, getting served not the best quality of meals.

With a bag slung over his back, he strolled into the prison, casually snatching a set of keys from the table and passing by the other prisoners until he came to a stop in front of the green haired one.

Luffy checked if anyone was around and when he realized that no else was close by, he unlocked the cell door and stepped inside.

At the sound of the door opening and closing, Zoro woke up from his nap and stared confused at Luffys presence in the cell. His eyes widened when he recognized the Marine from yesterday.

“You’re back, but why are you inside my cell?”

The Raven dropped the sack to the ground, before opening it to reveal an assortment of various foods ranging from simple fruits to chunks of fresh cooked meat. Various bottles filled with, Zoro was pretty sure, alcohol was laying next to it.

“How else would we have lunch together, if cell bars are between us.” Luffy grabbed his hands and unlocked the cuffs around his wrists.

“Here, now you can eat as much as you want.”

Zoro didn’t even see the point of questioning his motives anymore, when he always gave him the most innocent answers.

Instead he asked, ”You do know that I’m only 17 and not legally allowed to drink yet?”

Luffy looked back at him as if he was stupid, “Who cares? Rules are made to be broken.”

“You’re a fucking Marine, you guys are the last people who should be breaking the rules.”

“Didn’t Captain Morgan break a rule when he wrongly accused you of the murder of his son?”

That snapped Zoros mouth shut for a second, he grabbed the bottle Luffy offered him and took a swig.

“Burns a little, but I definitely don’t mind the taste....So, you really believed me when I said I was innocent?”

Zoros stomach grumbled and he grabbed a chunk of meat from the stack.

“I can’t really explain it, but I know that you are innocent. I guess I can sense that you have a good heart.”

A feint blush of embarrassment appeared across the prisoners cheeks and nose and he grumbled, “Shut up, don’t say weird shit like that.”

Luffy just laughed at his reactions and they continued their meal with random conversation in between.

“What are you gonna do when you get out of here?”

“You mean if?”

“Nope, I mean when! I’m not gonna let you rot in prison.”

“This is really weird, why do you care so much about what happens to me?”

They were passing around the last bottle of alcohol. While this was the first time Zoro was drinking, he was barely tipsy. Luffy wasn’t affected at all since he drank way less and his fast metabolism was working through the alcohol fairly quickly.

“You remind me strongly of a close friend I have, not only from looks, but from your presence as well. Like I said I can tell that you’re a good person and it would be a shame, to not have you as my friend.”

Zoro took a look at his sincere face and smiled, “Friend huh, can’t say I’ve really ever had one before. I hung around with Johnny and Yosaku for a while, but they were a duo that I could never fit in. I don’t know if I want to go back to bounty hunting either. I actually feel purposeless.”

‘Does that mean he didn’t have the dream to be the worlds greatest swordman or did he give up on that ambition?’

“How about you hang around with me for a while? Everyone has a purpose in this world and we’ll find yours together.”

“Tch, you’re one crazy bastard. Alright, if you can get me out of here I’ll follow you to end of the fucking world. It’s not like I have anything better to do.”

A jovial look appeared on the Ravens face as head jumped at Zoro and embraced him tightly.

Zoro complained and tried to free himself, but gave up soon, when Luffy only tightened his grip.

“I should go now, I’m sorry but I’ll have to put the cuffs back on before the others see you and think you’re trying to break out. I’ll be back tomorrow so don’t feel too lonely okey?” Luffy smiled at him, putting his cuffs back on.

Zoro grumbled, “Tch, lonely, as if.”

The Pirate stood up and left the cell, locking it back up behind him.

“Bring me some more sake tomorrow when you visit. I liked that one the most.”

Luffy sweat dropped, “I shouldn’t have brought you alcohol, you’re already turning into an alcoholic.”

He took a look at his disappointed face and immediately caved in, “Jeez alright, I’ll bring you some more tomorrow, I promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment with your thoughts. 💭 I love reading them. It definitely motivates me to write more.


	6. Chapter 6

It was Luffys third day in the base and currently he was sneaking back into the kitchen to bring Zoro his promised sake. The moment he stepped into the kitchen, he realized it was already occupied. Luffy remembered back to the lesson Usopp had thought him. ‘If your doing something you’re not supposed to do, just act self-assured and confident. No one will question your actions and you will get away with anything.’

Luffy strolled inside and started filling his bag from the pantry and fridge. The few Marines that were occupying the table, threw him a glance, but soon focused back on the table.

As Luffy finished stuffing his bag, he walked passed them and heard a Marine say, “The blade is beautiful but it gives of such a dark aura, I definitely would love to have the black one though.”

Interested Luffy turned his attention to the table to see two familiar katanas laying on it. One had a black sheath and grip with golden accents, the other was fully red with thin black lines and two thick gold lines wrapped around the sheath.

*Flashback to Thriller Bark*

“Zoro? You’re up already, shouldn’t you be resting? You’re badly hurt.” Luffy ran after his Swordsman who was leaving the building.

“Don’t worry Captain, I’ll be back soon. I just have to bury my dead sword.” The First Mate stopped at the doorway, turning to show his Captain his black katana.

Luffy accepted the offered sword and unsheathed it looking at the short rusted blade. 

“What happened to it?” asked Luffy, giving it back to its owner.

“I lost Yubashiri against a devil fruit user with the rust rust fruit. I should have been more careful.” A look of sorrow passed across his face.

That expression didn’t fit on his nakama, so Luffy asked him about his other swords.

Distracted, he pointed to the white one on his waist, “You already know about Wado Ichimonji and these ones are Shusui and Sandai Kitetsu.”

Zoro grabbed two of his katanas from his waist and unsheathed them showing of their beautiful shiny blades.

“I just recently got Shusui, but I got Sandai Kitetsu way back in Loguetown together with Yubashiri. It’s a cursed blade and not anyone can wield it.”

“They look really cool Zoro, makes me wanna become a swordman myself, Shishshi.” Luffys laughter also elicited a smile from the formerly grumpy Swordsman. 

*Flashback end*

‘That’s Yubashiri and Sandai Kitetsu. I wonder if they are also Zoros blades in this world?’

Luffy slammed his hand down onto the table startling the occupants, “Those are some beautiful katanas you have there. Are they yours?”

The Marine on his left stuttered, “Eh, I... well...you see.” before the the one across him interrupted, “No sir, they belong to a prisoner, but rumor has been going around that he was gonna either get life in prison or get executed and we thought it would be a shame to leave them rotting in the storage...”

A stern look crossed the usually jovial face, “So you decided, that you would take them into your possession? Rumors are rumors and nothing more. Roronoa Zoro is innocent and will be let out as soon as Smoker comes back. Meanwhile I’ll be taking these off your hands, I’ll return them to their rightful owner.”

“Of course, Commodore.” Was their only answer as Luffy snatched both katana from the table before turning around and walking away.

For second he stopped and without turning around he asked, “Was there a third sword by any chance? Maybe a pure white one?”

The Marines looked at each other to see if others knew anything about another katana, but all of them merely shook their head, so one answered, “Not as far as we know sir, but I’m pretty sure that between Roronoas possesions, he only had two swords.”

——

Down below in the cells it was lunchtime for the prisoners and Zoro was bored out of his mind. He had refused the meal the guards had offered him, knowing Luffy would bring him much better food soon.

He had only known the guy for two days and he already trusted him to hold the promise of bringing him good sake. The last time Zoro had trusted someone was when he had met Johnny and Yosaku, but even then it took him far longer than just two days to trust them.

He didn’t know what it was that made him believe his words this much, but he couldn’t feel any malicious intent from the guy. Was it because of the fact that he had believed him when he said he was innocent or was it when Luffy had told him he would free him from this prison?

“What are you thinking so hard about?”

Zoro snapped his head up and stared at the Marine who was crouched next to his sitting position. ‘I didn’t even sense his approach!’

“Nothing,... is that for me?” Zoro diverted the topic, pointing at the bag slung over Luffys shoulder.

He nodded once, opening the bag and emptying out its contents.

Much to Luffys amusement, Zoro immediately snatched a sake bottle, “Not that I’m complaining about it, but do they not question you when you enter here with a bag of food?”

The Raven grinned, shrugging his shoulders, “I guess they don’t dare question the current highest ranked marine in the building.”

“Highest ranked?”

“I’m a Commodore, only Smoker is higher as a Vice Admiral and since he is away, technically I’m the highest ranked one.”

Zoro pulled the bottle down from his lips in surprise, “You’re a Commodore? Isn’t that position too high fo you to be working as a prison guard?”

“I was actually supposed get promoted to a Rear Admiral, but some complications arose. It’s not important right now, I’ll tell you some other time.”

Zoro understood that he didn’t want to talk about it and dropped the subject.

“Oh yeah, I just remembered. While I was in the kitchen, a few marines were looking at two katanas, that I’m pretty sure belong to you. They thought you were probably gonna get executed so they were thinking of taking them for themselves.”

“WHAT?!? Those bastards! Wait a minute, I didn’t even know my swords were here, they took them from me back in East Blue.” His enraged face, shimmered down to a confused frown.

“I guess they brought your belongings along with you. Don’t worry I took them of their hands and placed them in my room for now. You’ll get them when we get you out of here. You only had two swords right, not more?” Luffys curiosity took over.

Zoros face contorted to something between grateful and an “are you stupid?” look, “What do you expect me to say? That I carry three swords so I can fight three-sword style? Where do I put the third sword? Up my...”

“No no no, don’t say that! Just ignore what I said.” Luffy covered his ears and glared at him.

The response he got in return was his laughter, “You’re such a child, I thought you were older than me?”

Luffy squeaked in indignation, “I am. I’m 19, so stop disrespecting me.”

Luffy couldn’t pull the Captain card on this Zoro, but he sure as hell could pull the age card.

“Okey, I’m sorry.... Gramps.”

“THAT’S IT. You’re getting it now.”

Luffy jumped on Zoro and they tumbled around in the prison cell. Zoro tensed reading himself to block the incoming attack. The hands sneaked through his defense and reached his stomach.

“Hahahahahahh, no stop please. Show mercy.”

Luffy tickled him a little longer, before letting the breathless Zoro go. Free from his clutches, he immediately moved to the side to put some distance between them.

“You have absolutely shattered the minimal trust I had in you.” Zoro said after taking a few deep breaths, with the most non-serious expression on his face.

“Shishishi, you’ll learn not to tease me.” Luffy said with an air of triumph surrounding him.

He stood up gathering all the empty bottles and plates bag into the bag to dispose of later.

“You’re going already?” Zoro watched him lock back the cell door behind him.

“Ah yes, there are some guards coming. I don’t want to be caught hanging out with a prisoner and I still need to do my rounds. I’ll see you later.” He waved, reluctantly leaving him behind in the dark empty cell.

A whole week passed much too similar. Luffy would spend the morning after breakfast sparing with Nami and the eager recruits. Afterwards he would get some food and sake from the kitchen to feed his green haired friend and make his rounds in the prison hall.

This Zoro, while four years younger than the other, had much the same personality as him. He seemed a little shy or easygoing at the beginning, but that would probably change with his age. Luffy sometimes wondered if he would be the same as his swordsman at the age of 21 or even just 19, but then he remembers everything he had learned about him the past week.

This Zoro was a bounty hunter, not because he had gotten lost and needed a way to get some money for food, but because that was the profession he had chosen for himself. From his stories, Luffy could tell that he wasn’t directionally challenged either, since he had apparently navigated the whole of East Blue, even going as far as Loguetown all by himself.

That’s were he had gotten his two swords from. He had left behind his two nameless swords since he had better ones now and there was never a mention of a white one. Wado Ichimonji was never in his possession and he never dreamed of becoming the worlds greatest swordsman.

——

At the end of the week Smokers ship was sighted and Luffy stood at the pier with Nami at his side. He was waiting patiently, hoping Smoker hadn’t come back empty handed. Even if he did, Luffy was gonna get Zoro out of there one way or another.

The ship anchored, a plank got put up between the pier and the ship and Smoker was the first one to step on it. He was followed by two Marines, who were escorting a prisoner.

Luffy grinned brightly at the sight of the chained up Axe-Hand Morgan. He ran up to Smoker to greet him cheerfully.

“Hi, Smoker-nii. It looks like you brought a little present with you.... Is he missing another hand?” Luffy questioned looking at both of the wrapped up stumps.

Smoker looked back at the glaring former Marine Captain and said, “Well I thought it would be a good idea to crush his axe hand, so he couldn’t attack us, but I might have accidentally crushed the wrong hand.”

“YOU LIAR! You damn well did this on purpose. I will make you pay for this, Vice Admiral!” screamed Morgan, looking absolutely furious at the loss of his second hand.

Smoker shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, “I don’t see the problem here. If you ever get out of prison, you can just attach an axe on both hands, Double-Axe-Hand Morgan.”

Luffy and Nami burst into laughter while the Marines ushered the screaming Morgan down into the prison cells.

Smoker turned his attention back to his little brother with a small smile, “Luffy, Nami, won’t you two help me quickly with some paperwork? The faster we finish, the faster we can get Roronoa out of prison.”

“YES, let’s go!” Luffy grabbed both their wrists and dragged them to Smokers office.

On the way, Smoker took over leading, since Luffy seemed to not even remember the way to his office anymore. He had only been there once after all and that was a week ago.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment with your thoughts. 💭 I love reading them. It definitely motivates me to write more.


	7. Chapter 7

Inside Smokers office, they were talking about what went down in East Blue and were filling out a report of it.

“The moment I had some of his men alone with me, they spilled everything. Morgan killed Helmeppo, his own son, in a fit of rage. Apparently he had defied him about something, the Marines didn’t now what it was either. They had been arguing about it for the last few days, before Morgan had finally had enough and swung his Axe at him. He dumped his body off in the corner of a street and threatened to kill his men if they told anyone. Zoro was the one who found his body and reported it to the Marines, so Morgan just took the chance and used him as a scapegoat.” Smoker finished explaining the situation, while also writing the report.

“That’s awful, for someone to kill his own son and push the blame on an innocent bystander.” Nami frowned before finishing of her own report, “Here I wrote down everything that happened while you were away. Zoro was well behaved and didn’t attempt any escape, I hope that is enough for us to free him.”

Smoker stood up, quickly reading through her report, before nodding once and walking to the door, “That is enough, Nami please report back to Tashigi about the situation, while Luffy and I go down to the cellars.

Not waiting for her answer, Smoker left the room with Luffy in tow.

——

“What are you fucking grinning at, you bastard?”

“Oh, I just thought it was nice to see you again, don’t you feel the same way?”

Morgan glared at the green haired prisoner across from his cell.

Zoro was standing close to the prison bars, inspecting his fellow prisoner. The Marines had brought him in and placed him in the cell across from him, half an hour ago. Since then, the grin hadn’t left Zoros face, it was starting to ache.

„Stop grinning like that, before I rip your fucking face off.“ retorted back Morgan.

Zoro pointedly stared at his bandaged stumps, „Oh and please tell me how you’re gonna accomplish that. I‘m just really curious you see.“

Heavy footsteps followed by light ones, interrupted Morgans answer. Smoker and Luffy both came to a stop between the cells.

„Zoro, we’re here to free you.“ said Luffy unlocking his cell while wearing a bright smile on his face.

Surprised, the Swordsman looked to the Vice-Admiral and saw that he didn’t protest to Luffy taking off his cuffs, „I‘m actually being let go? You... you’re serious?“

„Of course, I promised to get you out off here didn’t I?“

Zoro looked eye to eye with the guy, who was the same height as him even though he was 2 years older.

He nodded in confirmation before being led out of the cell and out of the building.

„Luffy, where are you bringing him?“ Smoker questioned behind them, but didn’t move to stop his brother.

„Just to the backyard to see the sun. It’s a beautiful day outside. It would be a shame to miss it.“

The duo was sprawled on the grass next to each other, with the sun shining on them. It was peaceful and the only sound ringing through the air, was the the birds chirping.

At times like this, Luffy got reminded of his crew that he left behind. How he would lay on the grassy deck with his First Mate to take naps or have a sleepover outside under the starry night sky with all his nakama. It had been over two weeks now, since he had landed in this world and he hadn’t even begun to search for a way back. He was too distracted with trying to free his First Mates counterpart, that he totally forgot that he had to return home.

He turned his head to the side to look at his newest friend. He saw him laying with his eyes closed and a small smile pulling at his lips. This Zoro definitely showed more expressions that the normally stoic Zoro. Not to say that the older one was unfeeling, but he definitely wasn’t as open as this one.

What Luffy realized though, was that he was only showing this side of him to Luffy. The moment he had passed by Smoker and the other Marines, the smile had wiped of his face and a guarded look had appeared on it.

Luffy saw the distrust shimmering in his eyes, behind a wall of indifference.

He nudged his shoulder to pull his attention and motioned him inside, „Let’s go get something for lunch and afterwards we‘ll get your stuff back.“

Zoro lazily stretched out, before standing up to follow him, „Can we get some..“

„Yes, we can get some sake too.“ Luffy interrupted without turning around.

Zoro scowled, „How do you already know me so well?“

„You’re kinda predictable... you alcoholic.“

Zoros scowl deepened at the jab and he started mumbling that he wasn’t an alcoholic.

Ignoring his disillusion, Luffy walked into the dining hall and the chatter stopped at his entrance. The Marines stared interestedly at the former prisoner, not having been notified yet, by his status as a free man.

„Luffy, I have space for the two of you here.“ Namis voice rang out from the corner of the room and Luffy, grateful of the distraction, pulled Zoro along to the table, which was already filled with plates of food.

„Thank you Nami, you’re a real lifesaver.“ he said, while taking a seat across from her.

„That’s what best friends are for, right?“ She motioned for Zoro to sit down as well and he did so, next to Luffy, warily looking at the assortment of food.

At Namis inquiring look, Luffy elaborated, „Ignore him, he is just looking for some sake.“

„Oh, well I don’t have any on the table, but we can get some later. Is whiskey okay for now?“ Nami offered an unopened bottle and he accepted with gratitude.

„Best friends huh? How long have you guys known each other for?“

„Well, I was 13 at the time and Luffy was 12, so 7 years now.“

Luffy hid his surprise at the answer, while he knew that she had been childhood friends with his counterpart, his mind hadn’t realized that it was for anywear near that long.

„So you guys grew up on the same island or something?“ Zoro asked in between sips and occasional bites of steak.

A dark look flashed across her face, but it was gone the next second. Luffy realized that he was the only one who caught it, but he ignored it for the moment.

„I orginally grew up in Cocoyashi Village and lived there with my adoptive mother until I was 10 years old. Then, the Arlong Pirates took over and asked for a living fee from every citizen. They killed Bellemere when she only had enough money to pay for me. When they realized that I was good at drawing maps, they forced me to work under them. That’s how I lived for two years, part of a crew of fishman pirates that had killed my mother and now were forcing me to draw them maps, until my hands bled and couldn’t hold the pen anymore.“

Luffys jaw clenched in anger at hearing the same thing happen to this Nami.

„I was so happy and relieved the day Vice Admiral Garp came to our island. He was only making a quick pit stop at Cocoyashi Village for resources and that’s how he came across Arlong Park. He singlehandedly defeated and captured them all. He stayed for a day only because the citizens wanted to throw him a thank you party. He refused any presents, money or gratitude, stating that he was only doing his job.“

Luffy mimicked the smile on Namis face, grateful that at least she didn’t have to live that live, as long as his Navigator had.

„I was really inspired from that and wanted to become a Marine just like him and my late mother. So I asked him to let me join the Marines and he laughed in answer. He said it was too early for me and that I had to at least wait until I was a teenager before I joined. After he realized I was an orphan, he took me with him to Fushia Village and that‘s where I met Luffy.“

Zoro finished his meal and stood up, „Well thank you for taking your time to explain that. I know it must not have been easy for you to retell. If you don’t mind Luffy, would you bring me to a bathroom? I seriously need to take a shower.“

Nami wrinkled her nose, „Damn, I don’t even know how I didn’t pick up your stench until now. We seriously should let our prisoners take showers more often.“

Luffy chuckled at Namis rude behavior and motioned for Zoro to follow him, „You can use the bathroom attached to my room so you can shower in peace.“

Nami stood up quickly and ran after them, before shoving a bag into Zoros hands, „Here, I was nice enough to pick up your belongings and wash your clothes.“

Zoro looked surprised at the nice gesture, before nodding gratefully and running to catch back up with the Rubber Idiot. On the way, he snatched two sake bottles from the buffet counter and stashed them in his bag.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment with your thoughts. 💭 I love reading them. It definitely motivates me to write more.


	8. Chapter 8

Luffy was drawing on his desk, waiting for Zoro to finish his shower. He switched to the blue crayon and before he could put his next line on the paper, Zoro interrupted his concentration, by poking his head next to his, to look at his drawing.

Startled Luffy dropped his crayon and turned his head to look at the the freshly showered and dressed Zoro. Luffys observation haki hadn’t warned him, since he already acknowledged him as a friend and as no threat.

Zoro was dressed in a pair of black pants, white elbow length shirt, black boots, a black belt, wich head straps on the side, to hold his katana and his hair was long enough to be tied in a short ponytail. Unlike the older Zoro, this one didn’t wear any green, had no earrings in and wasn’t wearing a haramaki sash or bandana either.

„Why are you drawing a raccoon?“

„It’s not a raccoon, it’s a reindeer.“

Zoro looked doubtfully at his sketch, „It looks like crap and shouldn’t a reindeer have antlers or something?“

„I was getting to that, before you interrupted me.“ grumbled Luffy picking back his fallen crayon and continuing his sketch.

„So, why are you drawing a reindeer?“ he asked, plopping himself down on the bed and grabbing the sake bottle, which he had snatched from the dinning hall before.

„Got bored waiting for you, so I decided to draw Chopper, since Usopp said my drawing skills were garbage.“ Luffy casually stated, while coloring in Choppers blue hat.

„Chopper? Usopp? Who?“

Luffy finished his drawing and shoved it into his folder, with his other sketches, „Just some friends, by the way, you’re swords are right there.“

Zoro turned his head to were Luffy pointed and saw both his katana propped up against the wall. They were in his reach, so he grabbed them and attached them to his belt straps, but not before checking them over and being satisfied by their pristine conditions.

„So, what now?“

„What do you mean?“ Luffy rose his brow at Zoros question.

The Swordman made himself comfy on the bed, to Luffys amusement, and said, „I already told you before that I have no real ambition in life and when I said „I would follow you to the end of the fucking for“, I wasn’t kidding. I’m not willing to join the Marines after everything that happened, but I wouldn’t mind following one like you.... Only if you don’t mind me doing that. I wouldn’t wanna be anymore of a burden on you.“

Luffy chuckled at Zoros embarrassed red face, „Of course I don’t mind, I would gladly have your company with me. You’re really fun to hang around with. I‘m sure Smoker won’t mind if I bring you along on some adventures.“

——

With a little bit of persuasion from Luffy, Smoker allowed Zoro to stay in the base and since they didn’t have guest rooms, they brought in a second bed into Luffys room. The Rubber Man was ecstatic the first night with his new roomate. He had always hated being alone and sleeping in an empty room unsettled him greatly. The presence of a familiar person helped him fall asleep much faster.

The next week was spend training Zoro back into shape after he had spend six weeks in a cell. He had of course done some exercises, but there was only so much training he could do without any weights or swords to train his swordsmanship.

It had been over three weeks now since he had landed here and he had already looked through all the archive rooms for any possible information about the light portal. Nothing, he had found absolutely nothing.

Luffy slapped Zoros sword away and twisted his arm behind his back, pushing him to the ground. Zoro face planted into the hard ground and struggled under Luffys grip. 

Luffy held on for a second before letting go, „That was way too easy Zoro, you were distracted, weren’t you?“

He jumped up and resheathed his katanas, „Yeah, sorry about that, I was just thinking about the mass execution that’s gonna happen today.“

Luffys mind took a moment to register the words, „Mass execution? What do you mean?“

His friend looked up surprised, „You didn’t know? I thought they would have told you. After all even the newest recruits now, I overheard them talking about it at lunchtime. Apparently you guys are gonna be executing quite a few prisoners today, actually in just another hour.“

„Zoro wait for me here, I gotta go talk to Smoker.“

Before he could say anything in answer, Luffy disappeared the next second, „Jeez, how fast is he?“

——

Smoker had just finished organizing all his paperwork into neat categorized stacks, when without knocking someone barged through the door and caused the whole room to shake when the door banged against the wall. The tremors rippled through the room, causing all the stacks of paperwork to topple and fall over.

Smoker slammed his fists into the table in a fit of rage, „Just because you’re my little brother, doesn’t mean I won’t beat your ass! You better have a real good reason for barging into my office like this!“

Luffy sheepishly apologized before bending down to help him pick up his scattered paperwork, „I heard we were holding a mass execution? Why did no one notify me of this? I think as a Commodore, I have a right to know, especially before the new recruits.“

Smoker sighed, plopping himself back in his seat after putting the messy stack back on his table, „I know how much you hate seeing executions, so I was planning to send you away on a mission, but it totally slipped my mind. I‘m sorry Luffy, you don’t have to be apart of it. You can just stay here, while we hold the execution on the other side of ...“

„No..“

The logia user looked up surprised at the interruption.

Luffy continued, „I want to be there. If you’re gonna execute multiple criminals at once, there is a high chance that some of their friends might show up, to try and rescue one. We wouldn’t wanna lose control over the other prisoners, if something like that happens.“

Smoker contemplated for a few seconds before nodding in agreement, „You’re right. There are gonna be some pirates with bounties of up to 100million belli and we even have a Pirate Captain whose bounty is almost 500million. Take Roronoa with you, but stand on the sidelines, only engage if we’re under attack or a prisoner tries to escape.“

Luffy cheekily saluted and ran out of the room to rejoin Zoro in the backyard.

‚I don’t know who the people are that are gonna be executed, but with the luck I‘m having right now, it’s probably the counterpart of someone I know. I just hope they are some kind of asshole like Sanjis double, so I won’t feel bad when they die. Please don’t let them be like Zoro.‘

——

„This is more brutal then I thought it would be. Another few months in that cell and I would be old enough to be executed next.“ Zoro shuddered watching the 10th prisoner get their head chopped of. The Marines weren’t even bothering to clean of the mess from the last one, before they pulled the next one up.

...

Zoro looked to the side, when Luffy gave no reaction to his statement. The Commodore was standing stock still, paying full attention to the execution.

„Are you alright Luffy?“

Luffy shock himself from his trance and turned his attention on his companion, „Of course, it’s just... do you trust me Zoro?“

His eyes widened at the seemingly random question before he nodded frantically, „Yes, but why are you asking me this now? Luffy... what’s going on?“

A frown pulled across his face, „Zoro, forgive me, but there‘s something I need to do. I don’t want you to get involved, since you‘ll probably end up back in prison... I‘m gonna free a prisoner and this time it won’t be the legal way.“

„What? Are you serious? You do know that, that’s gonna be considered treason and they’ll execute you right along with them?“ The Swordsman grabbed his wrist, as if to prevent him from doing something reckless.

„I know, but I can’t let them kill him. It doesn’t matter if this makes me a traitor, I won’t be executed either, since they won’t be able to capture me.“

Zoro was blinded for a second by Luffys confident and brilliant smile, „Alright what’s the plan?“

At Luffys confused look, he elaborated, „How many times do you want me to remind you? I told you I would follow you to the end of the world. I‘m not gonna back down because of the first obstacle that gets in my way. Just tell me what I need to do and I‘ll do it, Captain.“

The title was thrown out in a joking manner, but it returned Luffys smile, „Here are the keys, they gave me a pair since I‘m a Commodore. I‘ll cause a distraction, while you free Jinbe and I‘ll protect your back so you guys can escape. Find a place to hide as soon as you can, preferably close to the shore, I‘ll find you for sure.“

„Jinbe?“ Zoros eyes landed on the big blue fishman that was being brought up to the execution stand, „The Captain of the Sun Pirates? I didn’t even now they had captured him. They probably didn’t announce his execution, so his crew wouldn’t come save him. We should hurry, he‘s about to get his head chopped of.“

Luffy shrugged of the Marine coat and let it drop down to the ground. He gave it a last look, silently apologizing to his counterpart, because he was gonna seriously destroy his reputation right now.

Both of them jumped into action at the same time with Luffy letting out a burst of conquerors haki and knocking out almost all the Marines, except for the ones strong enough to resist the haki. Since the Commodore was gonna be there, Smoker had decided to stay in the base to continue his paperwork and Luffy was seriously grateful for that now.

Nami was shocked by the sudden kings haki that had washed over everyone, except for a select few. Luffy had deliberately left her, Zoro and Jinbe out of it.

Her eyes widened when she saw Roronoa run towards the equally shocked Jinbe and free him from his cuffs. Monkey D Luffy was standing before them in a guarded position, when their eyes met, Luffys showed remorse and Namis were shrouded in terror.

Zoro pulled the Captain of the Sun Pirates behind him, while running from the execution stand and Luffy engaged into a fight against the still standing Marines, who had finally registered the fact, that their Commodore had just betrayed them.

The duo disappeared soon out of view. While the Marines minds were strong enough to withstand the kings haki, they weren’t strong enough to withstand his raw strength. It didn’t take him long to defeat them and disappear right after the Zoro and Jinbe. Nami realized, that she was the only Marine standing, Jinbe was the last prisoner that was supposed to be executed.

She gritted her teeth, wiped the traitorous tears from her cheeks and ran in the direction she saw her childhood friend turned traitor disappear in.

She was soon able to find and corner him in an alleyway, „Why? Explain yourself right now! Why did you have the need to free that scum and betray your moral of justice?“

Luffy frowned at her trembling form and tried to reach out to comfort her, but his hands were slapped aside with her staff.

„Don’t come any closer you traitor.“

„Nami, I‘m sorry, but you have to understand that Jinbe didn’t deserve to die. Just being a Pirate is not a good enough of a reason to be killed. He has a good heart, I can sense that. There is a big enough conflict between humans and fishman already, we don’t need to make it worse.“

„What are you blabbering on about? He was on the same crew with Arlong. He deserves to die, as much as any other fishman. They’re all the same, they think they’re better than us, because their body is physically stronger. They are the scum of the earth, every single last one of them.“ Namis spit out, her voice laced with venom.

Luffy was left speechless by the reveal. He would never have believed for her to be able to have this much hate in her heart. Even the Nami in his dimension had accepted Jinbe, because she had known Arlongs actions weren’t Jinbes fault. She held no hate against fishman, even though she had been practically their slave for six more years than this Nami.

„This is were we part ways Nami, I’m sorry that me freeing Jinbe causes you this much anguish, but if I could, I would do it again and again and again. Let’s hope we never have to see each other again.“

Luffy turned around and left Nami alone, sobbing in despair in the alley. His heart hurt at hearing such a familiar sound, but he ignored it and ran to where he sensed Zoros presence.

On the way through the woods, he got interrupted again and Luffy feared, that someone had finally alerted Smoker of his betrayal and that he had come after him.

A person stepped out from behind the trees, a really familiar one at that. His blue eyes were boring holes straight through Luffy. His blond hair swayed to the side, uncovering more of his burn mark that went across his left eye.

The aura of anger and frustration was surrounding him, Luffy gulped and a drop of sweat ran down his back.

‚Oh great. Now I have to fight my own brother? Who probably isn’t my counterparts brother in this world, but what’s he mad at me for?‘

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment with your thoughts. 💭 I love reading them. It definitely motivates me to write more.


	9. Chapter 9

“I’ll kill you first, then that green haired brat and then Jinbe.”

Luffy was startled by Sabos statement and shifted uneasily in his spot, “Is there a particular reason you decided to off three people today?”

Sabo twirled his staff, before gripping it tightly and jumping for an attack, “The plan was to watch his execution, until you marines decided to free him for some fucking reason. Now I have to take his execution into my own hands.”

Luffy didn’t bother doging the swing and just grabbed the staff ripping it from his hands. Sabo didn’t let the surprise he felt at losing his weapon show in his movements. He immediately switched his free hand into the form of a dragons claw, coated with armament haki.

The Rubber Man jumped to the side and Sabos attack went straight into the tree behind him, completely shattering it.

“What kinda problem do you have with Jinbe?” he called out swinging a punch right in his stomach, causing Sabo to stumble back from the force.

“HE KILLED MY FUCKING BROTHER!” Sabo screamed in a fit of rage. Tears of frustration and anguish were sliding down his cheeks, “Goddamit, not now.”

...

Luffys jaw hung open in disbelief. ‘Is he talking about Ace? Did Jinbe kill Ace?’

“Fuck, I said not now.” Sabo furiously tried to wipe away his tears, but they wouldn’t stop falling.

“Why?”

Sabos head snapped up, as he barely heard his whisper. Luffys jaw was clenched and he looked to be contemplating every life choice he ever made.

Sabo plopped down to the ground and cradled his head between his arms, “It’s my fault. I should have looked after my knucklehead brother better. I knew how reckless Ace was and I still let him out of my sight.”

Luffy crouched down next to him, “Won’t you tell me what happened? I can’t guarantee it, but it might make you feel a little better.”

Sabo was silent for a while, but then he started talking in a voice that was barely loud enough for Luffy to hear, “Ace and I set out together 3 years ago. We were bounty hunters and we went after people with bountys off up to 300million. Two weeks ago, we came across Jinbe and his crew on an island. Ace was excited to take him on, but I refused since his bounty was way over the mark that we usually go for. Add to the fact that he had his crew with him, it didn’t look good for us. We argued for a while, Ace called me a scaredy-cat and stormed out of the hotel we were staying in.”

*Flashback*

“For the last fucking time Ace, we are not going after someone who has that high of a bounty. Remember the last guy we tried to fight? His bounty had shot up shortly after we decided to go for his head, so we didn’t even realize that he was crazy strong. I had to pull your dumb ass away from the fight, since you didn’t even want to back down when we were fighting a losing battle.”

Sabos words were going through Aces one ear and leaving right through the other.

“Are you even listening to me? I’m sick and tired of you being to prideful to back down. So please, let’s just not engage in a fight with a whole fucking crew. It’s not worth it.” Sabo pleaded, looking into his brothers eyes.

“Tch, you’re such a scaredy-cat. I’m leaving.” Ace stormed out the door, leaving his exasperated brother behind.

——

Sabo blinked his eyes open and pushed himself into a sitting position on the bed. ,Damn, did I fall asleep, how long has it been?’

He shot a look at his watch and realized that 5 hours had passed since Ace had left the room. ,Weird, why is he still not back? Normally he always shows up after an hour or two, after venting his anger out in the woods.’

Sabo slid his eyes shut, concentrating on his observation haki, trying to sense his wayward brother. ‘Nothing? He must be out of my range.’

He soon left the hotel and swept trough the town, until a commotion pulled his attention to the shore. He got closer and tensed for a second when he saw a group of marines huddled around a badly bruised and beaten Jinbe. They were putting chains on him and taking him away. The fishman wasn’t even protesting, his face was shoving remorse as they took him away.

Sabo turned his attention to the direction Jinbe was looking at and what he saw nearly made his heart stop beating. Sabo rushed up to his brother who looked to be in an even worse in condition then Jinbe.

“ACE”

“Hey, hey, wait boy.” A Marine tried to grab him by the shoulder, but Sabo quickly sidestepped and rushed to Aces still form on the ground.

He nearly slipped from a puddle beneath him, that was colored dark red and was obviously blood, that was coming from his motionless brother.

Sabo ignored the blood that was seeping into his pants as he knelt down. He put two fingers to his throat and waited for a pulse.

He put his head on his chest trying to hear a heartbeat and possibly feel his breath. He felt nothing, no heartbeat or breath on his face. A Marine put his hand on his shoulder, gaining his attention, “I’m sorry young man, we tried everything we could, but he’s gone.”

“No, you’re lying, my brother wouldn’t die like this. He wouldn’t leave me behind like this. Ace, wake up you asshole. Stop scaring me, it’s not funny.“ Denial laced his voice, as he shock his brother trying to wake him from his „sleep“.

„I’m sorry for your loss, but thanks to him we were able to apprehend the Captain of the Sun Pirates. He‘s definitely gonna be executed at the mass execution this month at the G5 base. You could come with us, we’ll give you his bounty reward and you could watch his execution.“ The Marine said, trying to console the broken boy.

Sabo gritted his teeth nodding, while holding Aces still body against his chest.

*Flashback end*

„I used the bounty reward to give him a proper burial at an island nearby, I still have so much of it left and all I wanna do is burn it. I don’t want to have the money that my brother died for.“ Sabo finished his story.

Luffy was silently listening the whole time and only started talking once he wad sure Sabo was finished, „Two years ago, my brother died, when he took an attack that was meant for me. I cried for hours. The only reason I was able to recover from my grief, was because someone reminded me, that while I had lost my brother, I still had my friends. That I wasn’t alone and that they would worry about me, if they saw what state I was in. I‘m not gonna lie and say I‘m over his death, because I’m not. My heart still hurts sometimes when I get reminded of him, but I’m surrounded by my friends and I know I’m not alone.“ 

Sabo picked up his head and stared into Luffys eyes with a solemn look, „Good for you, but I don’t have anyone else. I ran away from my shitty family when I was 5. I met Ace a few years later and we swore brotherhood soon after. It’s always been just me and Ace. I’m nothing without him....

Why did you free Jinbe?”

Luffy was startled for a second, before he answered back with his own question, “Do you think Jinbe killed Ace on purpose?”

Sabo sighed shaking his head, “I’m sure Ace attacked him first, since he wanted to go after his bounty and I understand Jinbe for defending himself. I see no reason for him to kill my brother on purpose. He might have been mad at him for coming after him in the first place, but I’m a pretty good judge of character and I now Jinbe isn’t the kind of person to kill a bounty hunter. Accident or not, I still cannot forgive him though. He took my only precious person from me.”

“I think I’m pretty good at sensing if people have good or bad intentions. There are bad pirates and there are good pirates, just like how there are good and bad marines. I can’t explain this feeling, but I know Jinbe is a pirate with a good heart. I’m sure he wouldn’t have wanted to kill Ace.... Sabo I know it’s hard, but there is a spot in this world for everyone to fit in. I’m sure one day, you’ll find people that you’ll love and that will love you back equally. I haven’t met your brother, but if you reunite with him too early, I’m sure he would knock you over the head.”

Sabo chuckled at Luffys spot on deduction of his brother, “Are you sure you haven’t met him before? That definitely sounds like something he would do. We promised each other to live life without regrets. I guess I’ll have to do that for the both of us now.”

Luffy jumped up grinning down at his brothers counterpart, “You know, I can sense it in you too.”

Confused, Sabo craned his head up, to look at his grinning face, “Sense what in me?”

“Kindness. It shows since you’re not attacking me even though I freed Jinbe. I know you came here with that intention, but I can see know that you would never do that. You’re simply too kind to hurt someone over something like this. You know what? I think you would fit in greatly with the revolutionary army or maybe a pirate crew like the Whitebeards or Red-Hair.”

Sabos face turned bright red in embarrassment, “Kindness? You’re the one who betrayed the marines, just to save someones live. Also, I don’t understand how a marine would advise someone to join a pirate crew, even worse join the revolutionaries. Although, I guess you’re not a marine anymore, are you?”

Luffy shock his head in agreement and hesitatingly said, “No, I guess not?... Look it was great talking to you, but the longer I stay here, the higher the chance gets that the marines find and capture me. I gotta leave.”

Sabo stood up and motioned for him to go, “I’ll go back to town and if I see any marine, I’ll make sure to divert their attention into a different direction. You should leave.”

Luffy contemplated for only a second before wrapping the former bounty hunter in his embrace, “I’ll miss you Sabo. Thank you and take care.”

Luffy sprinted out of the clearing and disappeared into the woods. Sabos already red face turned impossibly redder at the random hug. ‘Wait, I don’t remember telling him my name?!?’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment with your thoughts. 💭 I love reading them. It definitely motivates me to write more.


	10. Chapter 10

Zoro had let go of Jinbes wrist, when he realized he was following him willingly. They had run through the town, then through the densely packed woods and finally reached the shore.

They were both hunched over, panting from the impromptu marathon across the whole island.

“Not that I don’t appreciate it, but why did you save me?” Jinbe asked, after finally gathering his breath.

Zoro shot a look into woods to see if anyone had followed them, “I actually have no idea. Luffy wanted to save you, so I decided to help him.”

“Luffy? You mean the guy who fought against the marines while we escaped?”

“Yes, he said he would find us. So you’ll just have to wait for him to show up, before asking any questions.”

“CAPTAIN”

Multiple voices rang out through the clearing and Zoro tensed, turning his attention back to the shore.

Jinbe smiled, as several members of his crew ran up to him, “Oi what are you guys doing here?”

Aladine was the first one to reach his Captain and immediately started checking him for injuries when he saw him covered in blood, “Jinbe, are you alright? We were so worried when we couldn’t find you on the island anymore. Then we read in the newspaper that you had gotten captured by the Marines and that they were gonna execute you. Since they didn’t announce your execution date or location, we had to search every island on our way.”

Jinbe chuckled, “Is that so? I appreciate your worry Aladine, but I’m alright. This blood doesn’t belong to me. Two strangers saved me from my execution.”

“Yeah, I think we can introduce ourselves later. Would you mind if we boarded your ship? I don’t know how long it’ll take before the marines find our location.”

Zoro startled at the sudden appearance of his friend, while Jinbe only nodded in agreement.

Aboard the ship they immediately got ready to set sail as Zoro, Luffy, Jinbe and Aladine gathered in the middle for a talk.

“I know you’re wondering why I saved you and I know you might not find my answer enough, but I can’t tell you more then the fact that I only saved you, because I thought it was the right thing to do.”

Jinbe rose his brow in wonder, “You sure are one interesting fella. I’m not gonna start questioning my saviors, but is there anything I can do for you, to show you my gratitude?”

A serious look crossed Luffys face and he asked the question that had been plaguing his mind the last few minutes, “Why did you kill Portgas D Ace?”

...

Jinbe sighed and sat down on the stairs that led to the upper deck, “You’re talking about the Bounty Hunter right? He was a tough guy and it took a lot out of me to defeat him. I went overboard and got in too many fatal strikes. I was getting frustrated after the battle took so long and wanted to finish it faster. I have killed people before, I’m no saint, but they all had deserved it and it was always on purpose. Even if he was after my bounty, I never wanted to kill him.”

Aladine spoke up next, “We came to the location we had planed to meet up in, but the only thing we found was a battlefield. The trees were shattered and the ground was scorched. Only later on did we here from the locals about the fight between our Captain and a Bounty Hunter that had occurred there. Oh and we also found a devil fruit hanging from a tree...”

Luffys eyes widened at hearing the last part, “Did it have fiery red swirls on it?”

Surprised at the spot on guess, Aladine nodded, “Uh yeah, how did you know?”

“That must be the mera mera no mi, Aces devil fruit. Can I have it?”

Aladine glanced at his Captain in question , who gave a silent nod in agreement, “Hatchan, bring me over the devil fruit we found.”

Not even a minute later Hatchan brought over the fruit to Aladine, who passed it over to Luffy.

“I have to go to return to the island real quick, but I’ll be back. Zoro you stay here.” He added when he saw his friend follow him to the railing.

Zoro grumbled ready to protest, when Luffy interrupted him with a reassuring smile, “I will be back, I promise.”

Jinbe stood up from his seat ordering his crew, “Get ready men, we’re gonna sail around the island so to not get caught by the marines.” He turned his attention to Luffy, “You’ll be able to reach us even if we’re not anchored right?”

Luffy laughed holding the railing and stretching back to slingshot himself to the island, “Let’s just say I have my ways Jinbe.”

His body snapped back and he flew, to the shock of both the crew and Zoro who hadn’t seen Luffys ability before.

‘What kinda devil fruit is that?!?’

——

Sabo sighed at the stupidity of the marines. He had told every marine he had come across that he had seen the trio ran in the opposite direction. He felt his observation haki tingle and before he could react he felt something crash into him.

Sabo lay sprawled on the ground with the raven sitting comfortably on his chest. He shot him a glare, but didn’t move to shove him off, “What the hell are you doing back here?”

“Shishishi, sorry I had to come back to give you something that belongs to you.” He jumped of him pulling Sabo to his feet, before shoving the devil fruit in his hands.

Sabo stared surprised at the fruit inspecting it’s red swirls, “What are you talking about? This doesn’t belong to me.”

“Of course it does silly, who else would be a better owner for the mera mera no mi.”

“Aces fruit? Wha.. How?” Sabo hadn’t been there when his brother had consumed the fruit, so he had never gotten the chance to see it.

“The Sun Pirates found it and I asked for it. I thought this would be a great memento from Ace... wait, are you crying?”

Sabo quickly swiped away the tears from his cheeks and grinned shaking his head, “It’s nothing... I... Thank you Mugiwara.”

“Luffy”

“Huh?”

“My name is Monkey D Luffy.”

“Well it’s nice to finally know your name, since you already knew mine.” Sabo rose his brow in question.

A sweat ran down Luffys neck as he stepped back, “Ah yeah you told me your name before, don’t you remember?“

Sabo took a step after him, „No, I definitely do not... but I guess it doesn’t really matter does it? This is the best gift I could have gotten, so again Thank you Luffy.”

Luffys eyes widened at the sincere smile on the blonds face. How long had it been since he had seen his brother? He just hoped that his Sabo hadn’t heard of his disappearance yet. It was enough that his crew was probably sick with worry right about now. There was no need for an overprotective brother on that list.

“Yuck, it tastes like ash.” Sabo grumbled, biting off a huge chunk of the devil fruit.

Fire immediately bloomed from Sabos hand and he looked mesmerized at the bright red flame, as it ate away at the remaining fruit, leaving no evidence of its existence.

“I guess I’ll have to learn to train with it a little before using it in battle.” Sabo said, successfully diminishing the flame.

Sabo put his hand on Luffys head and ruffled his hair playfully. Luffy complained halfhearted and Sabo chuckled pulling away.

“Well I gotta go again. I wish I could sit and watch you burn down a forest, while trying to control your power, but I sadly don’t have time. This is goodbye, for real this time.” Luffy teased and Sabo grumble that he wouldn’t do such a thing.

With a final wave from each other, the pair said goodbye and went on their separate ways.

Luffy slingshot himself back to the ship and the Sun Pirates together with Luffy and Zoro set out to sea. Zoro followed after Luffy like a hawk, to everyones amusement. Luffy let him, not minding the company and he owed Zoro after he helped him save Jinbe, even though Zoro hadn’t even met the guy before.

——

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN’T FIND THEM? LOOK HARDER!” Smoker screamed, punching his table, causing it to split in half.

The Marine in front of him cringed, before saluting and running out of the room to follow his superiors orders.

Tashigi looked sympathetically at the Vice Admiral, who looked like he was close to a mental breakdown, “Smoker-san, you should really take a seat and try to calm down. I for one do not believe that Luffy-kun would betray us like this. There has to be a misunderstanding.”

“Misunderstanding my ass, Tashigi. He freed a fucking prisoner, beat up the marines on scene and now my little brother is on the run as a fucking traitor.” Smoker pushed his hands into his hair, pulling his white strands in frustration. “Did I do something wrong? What made him turn against us? Did I fail as his big brother?”

Tashigi slapped him over the head, partially for his last remark and partially to stop him from ripping his hair out, “Alright, either you stop talking crap, or I’ll write a report on your destructive behavior and have you suspended for a period of time.”

Smoker stared surprised at her, before letting go of his hair and and standing up from his seat, “I’m going into my room. Do not disturb me, unless it’s an emergency.”

Without waiting for an answer he left his office and slammed the door on his way out.

,What were you thinking Luffy? Do you like making your brother worry this much?’ Tashigi thought, looking worriedly after Smoker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment with your thoughts. 💭 I love reading them. It definitely motivates me to write more.


	11. Chapter 11

“So, where exactly are we going?” Zoro asked, leaning against the railing.

Jinbe and Luffy were standing next to him, also leaning on the railing and looking out to sea.

“Our destination is Fishman Island, you’re free to come with us all the way or we could drop you off on any Island that’s on our path.” Jinbei said, turning his attention to Luffy.

Luffy taught it over for a few minutes, before asking what island they were closest to.

“We’ll be reaching Water Seven soon.” Announced Aladine from behind them, with a map in his hands.

Luffy nodded in approval, “Guess that would be the best place for us to get off. Thank you for taking us all this way Jinbe.”

After Jinbe reassured them, that it was no problem at all, especially after they had saved his live, the Sun Pirates docked at Water Seven.

“Are you sure that you don’t want any provisions before we depart?” Asked Hattchan worried at his new friends well being.

Luffy shook his head, “We have enough money to last us for weeks, and I can always just hunt for food if the need arises. Take care everyone, Jinbe, don’t get caught again. I won’t be there to save you a second time.”

“You cheeky brat, I’ll make sure to avoid that. You take care of yourself too, better yet, Zoro look after him. After all the seakings he fought against on our journey, I can see that he is a trouble magnet.” Jinbe shot back, waving from his ship.

Zoro ignored Luffys annoyed “HEY” and said, “I’ll make sure to look after this idiot, thanks for the ride.”

A few minutes later they were walking through the streets, enjoying the peace after having to leave the last island in such a rush. The days they spend on the ship were anything but peaceful with the rowdy pirates and while Luffy enjoyed himself thoroughly he also liked quite and peace, so he could take a nap on the ships figurehead.

After Luffys stomach grumbled in protest, the duo got lunch from a nearby restaurant to go and settled themselves in an empty park for a much needed private talk.

“Sorry for pulling you along on my crazy antics Zoro. I wasn’t planning on telling anyone about this, but I think you deserve to know,.. no need to know, if you’re gonna stay with me.”

Zoro looked up from his food, interested in what Luffy could possibly be hiding from him and everyone else.

“I’m not from this world.”

...

...

“So, you’re an alien?”

“What? No! I mean I’m from a different dimension, parallel universe, alternate world? I honestly don’t know, but until less than a month ago I wasn’t here.”

Doubt was written across Zoros face, but he decided to listen to his story before deciding if it was bullshit or not, “Alright go on. How did you manage to land yourself in this world?”

“The last time I was actually in the New World, more specifically Wano. I was exploring the country, when I came across a weird light portal and decided to step through it. Suddenly I was free falling and landed on an island in the North Blue. Some marines found me, told me I was apparently their Commodore, who had disappeared a month ago. Not knowing how I was gonna go back home, I decided to follow them and act like the person they thought I was. I have no idea where this worlds Luffy is, he might be dead for all I know and weirdly in the time span of less than a month, I have already met or heard about 6 of my crewmates counterparts. It seems like even in this world, fate keeps pulling me towards them.” Luffy looked up to the sky, wondering if he would possibly meet Franky, since he was in Water Seven.

It took Zoro a while to process all the information and when he did, he blurted out, “Does that mean you’re not a marine in your world?”

Luffy turned his attention back to Zoro, gave him a devilish grin and said, “I’m actually the Captain of my own Pirate Crew.”

Zoro chuckled, “A marine and a pirate, I wonder how different my counterpart is? Hmm I am... was a bounty hunter and maybe he is like a revolutionary or something?”

Luffy burst out in laughter, almost choking on his food, “Shishishishi, Zoro as a revolutionary? No way, I think he’s actually pretty similar to you, since he also was a bounty hunter at one point, but now he is a pirate. Also your personality is also almost the same, except it seems your not bad at navigating your way, like Zoro is. Also you’re kinda shy at the beginning and distrustful. You didn’t threaten to take my life if I got in your way like Zoro did. Huh, maybe you’re not as similar as I thought...”

“Wait a fucking minute! Why does it sound like you know my counterpart, like really well?” Zoro interrupted, not even caring at this point if what Luffy was saying was even the truth.

Mischief was shining in his eyes as he tilted his head to the side, “Oh, why wouldn’t I know my own nakama? Zoro is the first member of my crew and the second in command.”

Silence engulfed the duo before Zoro bit his lower lip in what Luffy recognized as frustration.

“Did I say something wrong?”

At Luffys concerned voice, Zoro unclenched his jaw, “Does that mean you only saved me, because I’m the counterpart of your first mate? That you wouldn’t have given me a second glance if I was someone else?”

‘Again, I trusted the wrong person. How dumb could I be to think someone would care for a total stranger?’

Zoro was startled out of his thoughts by a gentle hand on his shoulder. He looked into Luffys worried gaze and scowled, shoving of the offending limb.

He was about to stand up and storm of, but Luffy started talking and an invisible force stopped him from leaving.

“When I met Zoro for the first time, he was crucified outside of a marine base. The moment I saw him, I knew I had to have him in my crew. The only thing I knew about him was his name and occupation. The reason I wanted him, was because of the feeling I had when I looked into his eyes. It’s a feeling I can’t explain, but it’s one I had when I recruited every single one of my nakama. Only later on did I learn that Zoro was chained for the dumbest of reasons ever and it only helped cement my wish to free him.”

“When I sensed your presence in the cells, it seemed familiar but different. You’re not the same person as my first mate and neither are any of the other counterparts of my nakama. I came to your cell, because you reminded me of my nakama and I stayed, not because you were Zoros counterpart, but because I could sense the same feeling from you. I left Nami behind on that base because she wasn’t someone I felt that connection to and neither was Sanji. You are your own person Zoro and I keep you around for that, not because you remind me of my first mate. So no, I wouldn’t have left you behind if you were a stranger, because my first mate was also a stranger in the first place.

Zoro was stunned from the speech that was dripping nothing but honesty. He lowered his head, deep in thought.

Luffy waited anxiously at his response, thinking over his explanation and if he could have said anything better.

Zoro sighed in defeat a few minutes later and smiled at Luffy, “I guess I’ll believe you, since you haven’t done anything to betray my trust and you could have kept this secret from me.”

“That means you’re not mad at me anymore right?” Luffy jumped on Zoro, wrapping him in his embrace.

Zoro struggled, trying to pull his face from Luffys arms, so he could take in a much needed breath of oxygen, “Are you trying to kill me?”

He only got Luffys uncontrollable laughter in answer.

A woman who was standing behind the cover of a tree, turned her back to the duo and left the park, content with the conversation she had eavesdropped on. Her long white hair swung behind her as she disappeared, without seemingly any evidence of her being there in the first place.

Luffys head abruptly snapped into that direction, as he let go of the suffering swordsman.

Luffys eyes narrowed, as Zoro coughing his lungs out, asked him if something was wrong.

“No, I just thought I sensed someone there, but I guess my mind is just playing tricks on me.”

Despite his dismissive answer, Luffy strolled into the spot he sensed a presence in and looked around. Something on the ground caught his attention and he picked up a tiny pink object inspecting it as it dissolved in the air, in front of his eyes.

Zoro looked over his shoulder, catching a glimpse of pink, before it fully disappeared, “What was that?”

“I.. I don’t know. It disappeared too quickly before I could take a good look.”

“Do you think someone was here and heard us talking about you being an alien?”

“Yeah, I worry abou.. HEY! I already said I’m not an alien.” Luffy swung his body around to shoot Zoro a glare, with absolutely no malice behind it.

“I mean, you’re not from this world and last I checked, the definition of alien is a being from another world.”

Zoro had to pull out his swords to block Luffys punch in the last second.

“Come on, you know I was just kidding.” Zoro whined childishly, reminding Luffy of the fact that Zoro was only 17 years old.

“That’s why I’m not putting much strength behind my punch. We need to train you harder anyway, you’re sorely lacking. You won’t survive in the grandline if you think my last punch was strong.”

Luffy continued with a kick, trying to swipe Zoro from his feet. Zoro jumped back offended at Luffys remark, “I didn’t say it was strong, I was just surprised by the random assault. I’ll show you that I’m strong enough to “survive” here or anywhere for that matter.”

“Surviving isn’t the goal Zoro, it’s living your life in freedom, without having to worry every single day if it’ll be your last one. Don’t worry though, I know you have great potential, you’ll get there in no time.”

They spend the rest of the day sparring and training him in armament haki. Everyone had to start somewhere and since his first mate specialized in armament over observation haki, Luffy hoped that this Zoro would have an easier time learning armament than observation too.

At the end of the day Luffy lay in a bed in a hotel room they had rented, staring with blank eyes into the ceiling. Zoro was sleeping on the bed next to his, giving of a barely audible snore.

The events of the day were running through Luffys head and the fact that there was someone out there who new his otherworldly adventures was worrying. He had quickly changed the topic by pulling Zoro into a spar, so he wouldn’t also worry, but this could turn into a serious problem. On top of that it had now been close to a month now since he had been here and he still had no clue how to return home. Luffy fell asleep with a frown on his face thinking, ‘What if there is no way home?’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment with your thoughts. 💭 I love reading them. It definitely motivates me to write more.


	12. Chapter 12

It had been one whole month. A WHOLE MONTH, since Luffy had disappeared. The Straw Hat Pirates had searched Wano from top to bottom and even the Kid and Heart Pirates had joined the search for their ally.

After the first week the Straw Hats had split into two groups, with the first one consisting of Nami, Sanji, Brook, Usopp and Franky, setting out to sea, to search nearby islands. The second group consisting of Zoro, Jinbe, Robin and Chopper continued their search on Wano.

The First Mate of the Straw Hat Pirates sat down on a fallen log with a heavy sigh. “It’s so fucking frustrating. He’s been gone for a month now and there isn’t even a single clue about his whereabouts.”

“I don’t mean to be pessimistic, but do we even know for sure that he is alive?” Kinemon asked leaning against the tree.

“His vivre card is fully intact, which means that he is alive and well, the only problem is though that it doesn’t lead us to him anymore. A normal vivre card would pull itself into the direction of it’s owner, but Luffys hasn’t moved ever since he disappeared. It’s almost like even the card doesn’t know where he is or Luffy is in a location we simply cannot access.” Robin replied, coming to a stop next to the duo.

Zoro stared at her confused, “What is that supposed to mean?”

Robin contemplated for a few seconds before deciding how to explain it to them, “No matter where someone is in the world, a vivre card will always lead you to their location. The only way it wouldn’t be able to do that, is if he isn’t in this world anymore. The only conclusion that I could come up with is that maybe he went through the Rainbow Mist and landed in a different dimension.”

“Fuck, It better not be that. That shit was a nightmare.” Zoro grumbled, remembering back how they had almost gotten stuck in that hell hole.

“Well it’s either that, or something similar. There is still so much we don’t know about our world. You know how crazy the grandline is, especially the second half. Anything could have happened to our Captain. The only thing we can do now is continue our search through Wano. If Luffy actually travelled to a different world, then there is a chance that there might still be a gateway to his location. If you guys find anything, then report back immediately. Please do not go through a Rainbow Mist or any other portal by yourself.” Robin turned around and promptly left the clearing.

Kinemon followed suit and departed into a different direction. Zoro being the last one left, stretched his arms out before folding them behind his back and laying down on the log. He closed his eyes deciding to to take a quick nap, since he hadn’t been able to get his normal amount of daily sleep.

Zoro was roused from his nap, a few hours later by a blinding light penetrating through his eyelids. Zoro groggily covered his face from the unforgiving light, before slowly opening his eyes and letting them get used to the brightness.

He looked confused to the source of light, that was shaped in the form of a tall rectangle that stood in the middle of the forest. Zoro circled the thin light wall in interest, before pulling out his den den mushi and calling Robin.

After a few rings, Robins voice sounded through the den den mushi, “Hello? This is Robin speakin.”

“Hey, it’s me Zoro. I just found something interesting, which might be the cause of Luffys disappearance.”

The face on the den den mushi sparkled in interested as Robin asked him to elaborate.

“It looks like some sort of doorway and it’s emitting really strong lightrays.”

“Sounds definitely like something our Captain would have went through. Can you tell me your location so I can come over to inspect it further?”

“Yeah, I’m actually still at the clearing we were talking in a few hours ago and...” Zoro abruptly cut himself off and widened his eyes at the sight before him.

Robin looked concerned at the sudden stop, “And what Zoro?”

“Robin, the light is disappearing... I think I’m gonna go through it.”

This time Robins eyes widened, “NO, Do not go through that Portal Zoro, we don’t know what’s behind it.”

Zoro stepped closer to the portal, “Luffy must be on the other side. If I don’t go through now, we might never get another chance to.”

“It’s too risky, there is no guarantee that Luffy will be there and that there is even a way back. You might get stuck ther...”

Zoro cut her off mid sentence, “Don’t always assume the worst case scenario. It’ll be fine, tell the others that I’ll be back in no time.”

With that said, Zoro ended the call, checked to make sure he had his katana secured and stepped through the portal, which disappeared the next second behind him.

Zoro looked around himself and realized that while he was still in a forest, it was an entirely different one. This one was dark and eerie, with mist covering his sight. He could barely make out the trees in front of him, while he walked through the mist.

Zoro stilled, sensing someone approaching. He quickly stepped behind a tree, masked his presence and waited for their arrival.

A figure appeared in the clearing and passt him without sensing his presence. His clothes were covered in dirt, shredded and barely hanging onto his body. His balding head had deep open wounds, that looked like they were rotting from the inside out. Taking a closer look, Zoro realized that is was a walking corpse.

‘A Zombie? Like that Warlords ability back in Thriller Bark?’

He looked up to the sky and in the far distance he could barely make out the writing on top of what appeared to be a sail.

Thriller Bark was written in bold black letters and Zoro could make out a second identical sail on the opposite side. A black sail stood proudly in the middle, with Morias Pirate insignia on it.

‘Did I simply get teleported back to the Florian Triangle, or is this the Thriller Bark from a different dimension?’

Zoro stuck his hands into his pockets leaning back against the tree in thought. His left hand came in contact with a piece of paper, which he pulled out after remembering that he was carrying Luffys vivre card with him.

He held the paper in his open palm and anxiously waited for its movement. It inced slowly to the left and Zoro grinned down at it, “Wait for me Luffy, I’ll find you for sure.”

Putting the card back in his pocket for save keeping, Zoro strolled through the woods in search of an exit. ,How the fuck do you get off this ship?’

Strolling through the forest, he came across multiple zombies, but they were easily disposed of with a single strike from his Sandai Kitetsu.

He also passed by several not zombified corpses that lay sprawled on the ground. Seems like no one had bothered to clean up their mess. Some of them still had flesh on them and some were only bones. A particularly familiar one caused him to stop and stare for three whole minutes. ‘Afro? Check. Crack in the skull? Check. Ridiculous outfit completed with a purple cane? Check... Goddamit Brook.’

Zoro sighed, staring at the multiple sliced up bones of the skeleton. , There is no coming back from this one, is there?’

“Was he your friend?” A voice interrupted his musings, but Zoro didn’t even flinch, since he had sensed the presence coming up from behind him.

He lazily turned around and stared at the familiar zombie, who was dressed in a white Kimono, with a blue scarf wrapped around his neck.

“And how would that be any of your business?” Zoro drawled out, eyeing the katana that was attached Ryumas hip.

“Well, I just thought that you would like to know that he challenged me to get his shadow back and as you can see, he lost miserably. Normally in a case like this, a friend would try to exact revenge for him.”

“He’s not my friend, that means his death is of no concern to me. Although I would still love to fight you for your sword. If I win I get your katana and if you win you get all three of mine.” Zoro said, challenging Ryuma.

Ryumas eyes swept over his sword and lingered on Enma the longest, “I can see that you have two O Wazomono grade swords and a Wazomono grade sword that is crused?... I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on those.”

Taking his answer as acceptance, not that it mattered to Zoro, because he was getting the sword one way or another, he pulled out Enma and went on the offensive.

The two legendary swords clashed in the middle and it didn’t take long before Ryuma had to jump back to avoid getting slashed by his opponent. 

“One-Sword Style: Bird Dance” Zoro swung his sword, sending a slice through the air. Ryuma switched to defense to block his attack and quickly went back to the offensive to send one of his own.

Zoro merely moved to the side staring bored at his opponent. ,Was he this weak when I first fought against him? So glad we took time off to train.’

“One-Sword Style: Soaring Dragon Blaze” Zoro announced running at Ryuma. A blue dragon visualized behind him, as he sliced through his opponent.

“Three-Pace Hum Notch Slash” Ryuma threw out his counter.

The next second, his chest split open and blue fames ignited from his wound. His eyes widened at the strength of his enemy, “You are stronger than you look.”

A tick mark appeared on the unharmed Zoros head, “Oi, what is that supposed to mean? Are you making fun of me?”

Ryuma chuckled with mirth lacing his voice, “A swordsman gets stronger with years of experience. You seem to be only in your early twenties and you’re already this strong. I guess it’s not such a bad thing to loose to someone of your caliber. Take good care of Shusui for me.”

Zoro slid Enma back in his sheath and caught the katana that was thrown at him. He smiled at the familiar feeling of Shusui in his hands and took another look at his fellow swordsman. Ryuma was completely consumed by the blue flames and the next minute he we ash in the wind.

Zoro attached the sword next to his other two and grumbled in annoyance. “Wish I had another hand to wield all four of you.... Wait are there any consequences if I bring you back with me?”

Zoros question hung in the air, as the zombies had no clue what he was talking about. They were more concerned with hiding from him. After Zoro had decimated so many of their friends, they had dubbed him as the reaper.

Suffice to say, even though Moria had heard of this reaper, he had not been able to find him on his massive ship. Not that Zoro was hiding from him, but his non existent navigation skills just kept directing him into the deepest corners of the ship/island.

Somewhere along the line he even arrived at the castle and was there long enough to get dinner, but by the time Moria come to the kitchen, Zoro was already halfway across the island. He camped outside that night, barely getting any sleep from being on high alert on enemy territory, by himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who is leaving comments on my work. Special Thanks to OtakuPie for leaving so many lovely reviews. Even if you were to be the only one who reads my work, then I would still write a new chapter.


	13. Chapter 13

Luffy and Zoro were sitting at a booth in a restaurant, eating their breakfast.

“So, how exactly are you planning to return home?” Zoro asked, stuffing another sandwich into his mouth.

Luffy put down his fork dejectedly and sighed, “I honestly don’t have any clues yet. It’s so frustrating, because normally I would leave information gathering to my nakama, especially Ro...” Luffy cut himself off when suddenly someone seated themselves next to him in the booth.

Zoro looked up from his food at the abrupt cut and looked bewildered at the random woman at their table.

The woman placed down her own breakfast plate, picket up a knife to smear jam on a piece of toast and without looking up, started talking, “I think I might be able to help you with your little otherworldly problem.”

Luffy stiffened, glaring at the white haired woman, “You were the one who spied on us yesterday, weren’t you?”

She took a bite of her jam toast, and turned around to face him, after swallowing her mouthful, “Yes and that was very rude of me. I apologize, but you have to understand that when I saw you two all alone sitting in the clearing, I was intrigued. Of course word travels fast where I work and when I saw a former Marine Commodore who betrayed the marines to save a fishman, I just had to get more information about him.”

“Robin?” Luffy asked astonished at the familiar face.

The white haired woman rose a brow, “Oh you know me? Or I guess you probably know my counterpart?”

“Hmmm, yeah Robin is my nakama. It took me a second to recognize you, because you don’t have black hair like her. Is your hair color natural?” Luffy stuffed a piece of bacon into his mouth, clearing his plate.

“Nakama? Oh, I didn’t expect that to be the case. And yes my hair is natural, I got it from my mother. I never met my father, but I guess he must have had black hair like my counterpart. Aside from that though, I have an offer for you Luffy-san.” Robin sipped on her coffee, giving the pair a nonchalant look.

Luffy and Zoro shot each other a look before Luffy nodded at Robin, indicating for her to explain.

She placed her mug down and shot a look around the mostly empty restaurant, making sure that there was no one eavesdropping.

Zoro caught on to her actions and chuckled, “Love how you’re checking to make sure the coast is clear, when you are an eavesdropper yourself. Pretty hypocritical of you, don’t you think?”

Robin smiled back, “Ah yes that is very true, but I rather have people not find out I’m part of the revolutionary army if I can avoid it.”

Luffys eyes widened and he blurted out, “You’re part of the revolu...”

Luffys sentence got cut off, as suddenly a hand appeared on his cheek and held his mouth shut.

“Remeber how I said I didn’t want people to find out, like a second ago? You screaming it out, doesn’t help.” Robin uncrossed her arms, after Luffy nodded in apology, making the hand disappear into little sakura pedals.

Zoro snatched one out of the air, inspecting it with an almost childish curiosity.

“Getting back to the point, I’m not hundert percent sure, but I might now about the light portal that you were talking about. There is a bedtime story that would be told to children when they were younger. I only know about it, because I came across it’s story in a book, while looking through the library. It’s about a woman who had lost her beloved husband to an illness. Not being able to live without him, she traveled the world in search for a way to bring him back.”

Zoro and Luffy were listening carefully, making sure to not miss anything.

“Hikari learned forbidden ancient rituals, that were also referred to as black magic. She was never able to bring her husband back from the dead, but she found another way to reunite with him. She was able to produce a portal that opened a gateway to a parallel universe. Once she passed through it, it didn’t take long to find her husbands counterpart. The problem was, that he was also married to her counterpart. Jealously was what drove Hikari to kill her counterpart and take her place as Shins wife.

It didn’t take long before Shin realized that something was different about his wife. I guess just like how your counterpart is a marine and you are a pirate. Parallel worlds, no matter how similar they might seem, could never be an exact copy of each other. As Shin questioned Hikari and her behavior, she finally gave in and told him everything. This part of the story is not clear, because it is written differently in every book, but in most books Shin kills her in revenge and the story ends there, but I’ve seen some endings where while he still rejects her, he can’t bring himself to kill the face of his lover and simply abandons her.”

Luffy taped his foot impatiently, hoping there was a point to this story.

Robin ignored his antics and continued, “Hikari distraught and angry at being alone again opens another portal in search of a different version of her husband, one that would finally accept her. It is said that she never found one, simply because the gods had cursed her for breaking the rules and using black magic. To the end of her life, she continued to search through dimensions never giving up. This story is over a century old, but to this day, they say that her ghost still opens portals to search for her lover.”

Zoro yawned, blinking his eyes lazily and asked with skepticism lacing his voice, “So we’re supposed to search for a ghost lady and ask her nicely if she could open a portal for Luffy? Where do we even start searching for her?”

Robin sipped on her now cold coffee, “Three years back, I found a journal of someone by the name of Yori. It told about his experience with the light portal. Just like you, he had gone through the portal and landed in a different universe. He spend 10 years there, before he came across his own counterpart. Not long after he saw a ghost of a woman who’s description fit exactly to Hikaris. This ghost or Hikari, had without a word opened another portal for him, before disappearing into thin air.”

Zoro grumbled about stupid ghost stories, before chugging from his sake bottle, ignoring Robins disapproving stare.

“Yori stepped through the portal again and this time he landen back in his own dimension. This dimension that we are in, to be more specific. He concluded that Hikari had only send him back after he had come across his own counterpart. I don’t know if she doesn’t approve of two counterparts being in close proximity or if she was kind enough to send him home, but that wouldn’t explain why she only opened the portal after Yori met his counterpart.” Robin finished, snatching the bottle from Zoro after he tried to go for a second one.

“Either way, our best bet would be to find my counterpart, but I don’t even know where to start looking for him. Nishida or whatever his name was, mentioned that my double had disappeared in the Grandline. I’m guessing he meant the first half of it, but that doesn’t narrow it down enough. Also it has been two months since then, so he could be anywhere at this point.” Luffy groaned plopping down on the table in despair.

Robin smiled mischievously, “And that’s where the revolutionary army comes in. We have a big network spanning the whole world. If someone goes missing we have the highest chance of finding them.”

Zoro pushed down Luffys excited form and frowned at Robin, “What’s the catch? I don’t believe that you would not only tell us the story about this ghost women, but also help us find marine Luffy for free. You want something in exchange, don’t you? No one is that generous, especially to strangers.”

Robin crossed her legs and leaned back comfortably, “You got me there. I heard about how you knocked out all those marines with conquerers haki, Luffy. Someone with that ability and the mastery over it must be strong. I have a potentially dangerous mission and it would take weeks for backup to arrive. I need help, now.”

“You want us to fight your enemies for you?” Luffy asked tilting his head in question.

Robin bit her lover lip and she looked away from the duo, “Ah, yes. If it comes to a fight, the enemy will be extremely powerful and I don’t know if I can take them on even with you two by my side.”

“Who is this enemy that you’re talking about?” Zoro interrupted.

“We’re trying to takedown the marine division that produces the pacifista army.”

“Oh? They used Kuma here too?” Luffy scratched his chin in thought.

Robins eyes widened at the his question and she asked one back, “Kuma? Are you talking about Bartholomew Kuma?”

“Hmm, yeah. Didn’t they use his body to experiment on and produce the pacifista?” Luffy remembered how Kuma had saved him and his crew by separating them at Sabaody. ‘I wish he could have given us a sign that he was actually helping us. I might not have gotten a heart attack then.’

“Oh my, that is... “ Robin cleared her throat, “Kuma is fine and at our base. Seems they used someone else in our world as the subject. His name is Cutty Flam and he was a shipwright here at Water Seven.”

Luffys brows furrowed, “Why does that name sound so familiar?”

“He also goes by the name of Franky.”

“FRANKY?” Luffy blurted out, causing the other customers to turn their heads at the loud noise.

Zoro waved them off in apology and everyone resumed their breakfast.

“Ah by the reaction you gave me, I’m guessing he is an acquaintance of yours? That would be problematic if you can’t fight against his pacifista forms, because of your relation.” Robin frowned in displeasure.

Luffy settled down with a sigh, “No, sorry, I was just surprised. Franky is my nakama, but not his counterpart. I have already accepted the fact that they are not the same person, so I can deal with it. I will not lose my cool just because someone looks like my crew mate. If I like someone here, it’ll be because of them and not their lookalike.”

‘I can’t believe I thought he was using me as replacement. He is too fucking nice.’ Zoro chugged the bottle that he had snatched back from Robin, while she was distracted and tried to hide his blush of embarrassment, “Why did they choose Franky instead of Kuma here?”

Robin looked at him and glared at his underage drinking habit, but decided to ignore it for now, “I’m guessing they couldn’t get their hands on Kuma since he is safe in our base?!? I do know that they took Franky with them about six months ago. A secret organization of the world government called the CP9 were undercover in Water Seven in search of the blueprints for Pluton. When they found out that Franky had them, they attacked him and Franky burned them so they wouldn’t get their hands on an ancient weapon. Since they didn’t want to return empty handed, they took the cyborg with them. Four months later, Frankys pacifista started appearing at fights, dominating the battles.”

“Allright, so what’s the plan?” Luffy asked as Zoro passed him the bottle and Luffy took it in gratitude. He needed a drink after all that talk.

“Pretty simple, the base where they produce them is on an neighboring island called San Faldo. We go there, kill the real Franky and get out off there. I don’t know how exactly it works but the scientists in our army are sure that without Franky the marines can’t build anymore pacifista. If we get caught, we’ll have to fight our way out against the pacifista that are surely stationed there.” Robin explained looking at Luffys face, to see his reaction to the killing part.

Luffy for his part didn’t give off any signs of disapproval, he simply nodded in reply and stood up with Zoro following suit, “What are we waiting for then? Let’s go crash their place.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed and will continue reading future chapters. Comments are much appreciated.


	14. Chapter 14

After paying for their breakfast, the trio with Robin in the lead, started gathering supplies for their trip. Robin had to steer Zoro away from the alcohol section multiple times, saying that they didn’t need sake for their trip.

After a little arguing ensued, Zoro was allowed to grab two bottles and nothing more. With their bags full with food to last for a week, they set sail on Robins small ship, that could fit in four people comfortably.

Robin was steering the ship, since she was the best navigator between them. Meanwhile Luffy and Zoro were playing different card games, where 90% of the time, Luffy kept winning because of his insane luck. It didn’t take long before Zoro accused him of cheating and refused to play anymore. Following his statement he turned around and promptly decided to take a nap on the deck.

Luffy chuckled and stood up to go to the kitchen of the little ship. It had been quite a few hours since they had left Water Seven and Luffy had decided it was time for lunch, “I’m gonna make lunch for us, I’ll be back soon.”

Robin turned her head slightly to the left to look at him in question, “You can cook?”

“Nope. Not really. I just now how to prepare some meat since Sanji forced me to learn it. He said it wasn’t enough to just hold them over fire till they’re not raw anymore. So now I just cook them like he taught me, with seasoning, sauce and all the different ways to cook meat. Did you know there were so many ways to cook meat? It’s really awesome.”

“I personally only know some basics, I’m no cook either.” Robin said, turning her attention back to the wheel.

Nothing eventful happened the next few days, as they sailed their way to San Faldo. Luffy prepared all the lunches, Robin the breakfast, since she was the first one up and surprisingly Zoro wasn’t a half bad chef. He took over the dinner preparations, after he figured out that Luffy could only cook meat.

“I see land, Robin. Is that San Faldo?” Luffy stretched his neck out too see further to the mass in the distance.

The Revolutionary squinted her eyes to see what the Rubberman was looking at, “It’s still pretty far away and will probably take around another hour till we reach it, but it should be San Faldo.”

Zoro yawned, standing up from his resting place on deck, “We better reach it soon, I’m starving, since a blackhole ate all our food supplies.”

Luffy turned around as he felt someone glaring holes into his back. He stared confused into Zoros narrowed eyes, not understanding what was wrong.

Robin smiled at their antics, as Zoro started accusing, rightfully so, Luffy of emptying their storage. The two started bickering, with Luffy trying to defend himself, saying that it wasn’t his fault that he was almost constantly hungry.

In less than an hour they finally docked at the island, after Robin had to sprout arms on the boat and hold Luffy down, before he got too impatient and slingshotted himself to the island.

Free from the bindings, Luffy jumped onto the island and was quickly followed by Robin and Zoro. They had docked at the back, behind a cliffside, so their boat wouldn’t alert anyone to their arrival. At this point they would of had to climb the cliff, but Luffy thinking that it was a waste of time, decided to do it his way.

Wrapping his right arm around the both of them, he grabbed the top of the cliff with his left and pulled himself up like a lift. Robin was just glad he didn’t shoot them upwards and over the cliff, which would have undoubtedly garnered some attention.

At the top, Robin once again took the lead and they silently went through the forest, munching on some apples they had found on their way. A few minutes later, Luffy stopped abruptly causing Zoro, who was walking behind him, to crash into his back. Zoro cursed as he rubbed his abused nose and Robin turned around in question.

“I can sense someone not that far away, about 2 o’clock.” Luffy gestured slightly to the right, with his thumb.

“Could be my partner.”

“You’re partner?”

Robin nodded, “She has been working undercover here for a month now and reporting back to base. It took a while until she could sneak her way into the ranks, to be able to work here. She was the one who told me about about the big production they were planning tomorrow. That’s why we have to destroy their source today, before they get even more pacifista on their side. We agreed to meet up in the forest, she’s gonna help us sneak in.”

“Good to know you’re not withholding any vital information from us,” Zoro sarcastically said, “Anything else we should know about?”

A small smile tugged at the corner of her lips, “Nothing that a teenager like you should concern yourself with.”

“Oh don’t pull that card now. My age didn’t matter to you when you brought me to highly a secured marine facility. So it shouldn’t matter now either. I’m 17 not five so stop treating me like a child.” Zoro said crossing his arms, with a defiant look on his face.

“This is about me not allowing you to drink all that sake, right?”

“Hell ye.. I mean no, totally not the reason.”

Luffy chuckled in the back, distracting them from their argument, “When I was 17 I broke into all three strongholds of the government. First Enies Lobby, second Impel Down and third Marineford. Though I did almost die escaping from the last one. Shishishi.”

Zoro and Robin shot each other a bewildered look and silently agreed that Luffy was a fucking madmen.

“Do I want to know why you did that?” Zoro asked.

“Not sure, but I’ll tell you another time, the presence I sensed before is approaching our location.” Luffy said turning back to great their guest.

A woman with short orange hair and dark blue eyes, wearing a basic marine uniform stepped through the clearing.

“Koala! It’s good to see you again.” Robin went and embraced the younger woman, who returned the hug, but looked suspiciously at her companions.

“It’s good to see you too, but who are these two?”

“Hello, I’m Monkey D Luffy, nice to meet you. This is my friend Roronoa Zoro.”

“Yo” Zoro simply added.

Koala directed her wide eyes at Robin, “The grandson of Vice Admiral Garp, Monkey D Luffy? The Commodore who was gonna be promoted to Rear Admiral before he disappeared two months ago?”

“No, not at all. He is Luffy from the other side of the light portal. He is actually a pirate. He and Zoro are just backup, in case we have to fight.” Robin said, amusement lacing her voice.

“Oh, then that’s okey.” Koala smiled at Luffy, waving in greeting.

“That’s it? That’s the reaction you’re gonna give to hearing that he’s from a different dimension?” Zoro asked.

“Hmm yeah, I’ve heard of weirder, more unbelievable stuff than this, so it’s not a big deal.”

“Aside from that, do you have a way to sneak us in?” Robin took control of the conversation, before it steered of too much.

“In about half an hour, it will be lunch time and everyone aside from some guards will be in the break room. They put extra security around the building so no one sneaks in during their break, but the inside will be mostly empty. I’ll be sneaking you in before the break starts, hide you in a storage room and as soon as the break starts you can go to the laboratory. I’m gonna have to be in the cafeteria with them, or else it might rose suspicion. The bell will be your signal, so don’t leave the storage until it rings. Here’s the general layout of the building.” Koala gave Robin a map, together with a baby den den mushi.

“Once we kill of this Franky guy, how will we get out?” Zoro piped into the conversation.

“Before the break ends, I’ll be taking over a guards post in the back entrance and that’s were you guys will leave from,” Koala pointed to one of the many marks she had made on the map, indicating the entrance she had mentioned. “I’m sorry I couldn’t come up with a better plan, but I was short on time.”

“Don’t worry, if something goes wrong, which always does with all the plans I’m apart of, we’ll just fight our way out.” Luffy announced, fully serious about his statement.

Koala shrugged in acceptance, “Well it seems you survived all those failed plans, so I don’t see the problem with your logic. Let’s start this mission, shall we?”

They followed Koala to the side of the building and while she was checking if the area was clear, Luffys eyes caught an open window.

“Oh, I can see our way in.” Luffy once again grabbed his two companions and pulled himself up and through the window, leaving behind the bewildered ginger.

Luckily for the trio, there wasn’t anyone close by, or else they would have already failed the undercover part of their mission.

Robin sprouted eyes all along the ceilings, making sure there was no one around, as she followed the instructions on her map, to find the unused storage room.

After successfully reaching the storage room without detection, they sat down on the ground, waiting for the lunch bell to ring.

They only had to wait for around eight minutes for the bell to ring and another two minutes to make sure that everyone had left the premises, but for the hyperactive pirate, it felt like forever.

With Robin once again taking the lead and scouting the area beforehand, they reached the laboratory. Stepping into the room, the first thing they saw was a person laying on a table, in the middle of the laboratory.

Multiple parts of his body were strapped to the table, even though he was obviously unconscious.

Robin stepped closer, inspecting the machinery that was attached to the blue haired cyborg, “It looks like they put him in some sort of comatose state. I bet he wouldn’t survive long without the aid of the machines.”

“So we can just pull his lifeline right?” Zoro immediately started reaching for the plug, but Robin slapped his hand away.

“First, let me make sure that this won’t turn on an alarm or some other security measure.”

She stepped up to the computers and started typing away at the keyboard, “I would appreciate it, if you could destroy their research documents.”

The two males nodded and started gathering every document they could find in the room and started destroying them. Luffy found a big tub and a faucet, filling it with water, he dropped all the papers into the tub, watching the ink smear and turn unreadable. This is the most efficient way they could think of, without causing too much noise or ruckus.

Robin finished turning of the alarm triggers and deleting every electronic data they had on the pacifista and Franky himself, “Now we only need to finish of Franky and we’ll be done.”

The three gathered in front of the table again. Luffy stared at the motionless body of his shipwrights counterpart. Much like his nakama, Frankys body was heavily modified, but his looked a lot different than his shipwrights.

Robin reached forward and unplugged all the machinery from his body and soon the lifeline turned straight without a sound. A second later the cyborgs eyes snapped open and he lounged at the surprised revolutionary member.

“What the hell!” Zoro screamed unsheathing his swords, while Luffy switched into his battel stance.

The cyborg held Robin by the neck in the air, without choking her, but his grip was tight enough to give her a warning in case she tried to escape.

“Well well well, what do we have here? So I was right, the revolutionary army was after my pacifista.” Announced a voice from the doorway, as the rooms occupants turned to face it.

A tall man in a white lab coat, yellow and blue striped shirt, dark long pants, yellow gloves and a surgical mask was standing with his arms crossed in front of him.  
Behind him stood three guards and a pacifista who had his own hostage.

Robins eyes widened at the sight of Koala in the other pacifistas grip and she spit out, “Dr. Vegapunk”

“Did you really think I wouldn’t figure out the spy, when she sneaked around so many times at night. I’m honestly more baffled by the fact, that you thought I would leave Franky or my data unsupervised at any time of the day. That right there is just another one of my creations and I have tons of backup data, he’s really lifelike ain’t he?” Even under his mask, his wide smile was clearly visible.

At the sight of both the hostages, Luffy lowered his hands and stepped forward, “All right, you win Punk or whatever your name is. What is it that you’re trying to gain from this hostage situation?”

Dr. Vegapunk dismissed the nickname, “Well I honestly expected the revolutionary army to have more members on this mission. So I was gonna use this hostage situation to make the others surrender, but I guess it would have been just as easy to just kill you off with a pacifista or two. It really breaks my heart, that they think four measly members were gonna be enough to destroy my research. Guards, take these two woman down to the cells for interrogation later, PX-1 and PX-3, kill the other two.”

After the pacifista transferred the girls to the guards and they left with Dr. Vegapunk, they immediately went onto the offensive.

Before Luffy could stop him, Zoro ran at the pacifista and swung his swords into the tall cyborg. With a swipe of his arm, Zoro got send flying into the wall and he coughed at the sudden release of all the air from his lungs. His eyes widened as he saw that his swords hadn’t even scratched his opponent. Not letting the failure get to him, he jumped right back in, after successfully coating his sandai kitetsu in armament haki. His second attack was able to cut through, but it wasn’t anywhere near as deep as he had hoped.

Luffy grinned proud at Zoro for being able to use haki, even if it was only for a second. He moved his head to the side, letting a beam, from his own opponent, pass by his head. He lazily dogged the swipes of the blue haired cyborg for a few second, before getting bored. He snapped his hand back and send the cyborg flying with a jet pistol.

“Argghh.”

Luffy swung his head back at Zoros pained groan and silently cursed himself for not ending this fight sooner. One of the cyborgs laser beams had hit Zoro in the side and he was crumbled to the floor, heavily bleeding.

Before Luffy could run up and finish his friends opponent, the building started shaking and suddenly the ceiling started crumbling onto them.

Now normally this wouldn’t be a problem for Luffy, but the thing was, Zoro was heavily wounded and not made of rubber like him. He probably wouldn’t survive being buried under ruble.

“ZORO” Luffy screamed out, trying to reach the younger male, but the pacifista suddenly blocked his way.

“Outta my way! Gum Gum Bazooka!” Luffys open palms hit the pacifista in the stomach and send him flying into a wall, which ultimately made the situation worse. With another wall destroyed, the ceilings fully collapsed and buried them beneath it.


	15. Chapter 15

Luffy pushed aside another piece of concrete from his body and finally came up for fresh air. He coughed the dust from his lungs, before shielding his eyes from the bright sunlight. Luffy looked in wonder at the crumbled up part of the building. Aside from the destroyed laboratory, the base was still fully intact.

Suddenly he was surrounded by around ten pacifista, forming a circle around him, “Tch, so annoying. Gum Gum Whip.”

With his haki infused leg, Luffy swiped multiple pacifista of their feet at the same time. Lazer beams were thrown at him from multiple sides, as he dogged every single one and punched another with his jet pistol.

“LUFFY, duck!” Sounded out a familiar voice and instinct took over as Luffy threw himself to the ground.

“Two-Sword Style: Rhino Cycle.”

Luffy saw multiple slices fly through the air and cut down the remaining pacifista. A smile bloomed across his face and he let out laugh in relief. He jumped up to his feet and faced his green haired friend, “I’m so glad you’re okey Zoro. I was so worried that I wasn’t gonna see you again.”

Zoro stepped over the fallen bodies and came to a stop in front of Luffy. The next second Zoros arms wrapped around him and pulled him to his chest, “You idiot, I’m the one who’s supposed to say that. Your reckless ass made me worry for so long.”

Luffys giggles came to a sudden stop, as he realized something was off about the situation, “Zoro... are you standing on something?”

“Hmm. No? Why?”

Luffy pulled his face away from where it only reached Zoros chest, “You seem weirdly taller then me.”

“Did you hit your head or something? I was always taller than you. Not only am I two years older, but I’m pretty sure you’re naturally short.” Zoros lone eye stared down at his Captains face.

The color drained from his face as it finally dawned on him, that this was his First Mate and not the young 17 year old Zoro. Luffys head snapped back to the destroyed room, “Fuck” was the only thing he said as he ripped himself away from his confused nakama and ran to the pile of rubble.

“ZORO, Can you here me? Please give me a sign that you’re alive!” Luffy frantically pulled away rubble from a huge pile, too stressed to be able to use his observation haki to find the buried swordsman.

“Luffy? What the hell is going on? I’m right here?!?” Zoro jogged up to his Captain, wearing a bewildered expression on his face.

“Baka, I’m not talking about you. I’m looking for your counterpart.”

“Oh...” Realization dawned on his face and he closed his eyes and spread out his observation haki.

Immediately he could sense a presence not that far away. It was weirdly similar, but not the same as his own and it was really faint. Zoro grabbed Luffy and pulled him along to the presence.

Together they pried all the concrete of and as it was finally all gone, Zoro frowned at the body beneath it.

Luffys worried form was checking over the others body as Zoros eyes swept over his counterpart. The first thing that caught his eyes was the blood freely flowing from his side and the multiple scratches and bruises he had gotten from the ceiling caving on him. He had gotten lucky and landed between the empty space of two big chunks, but he hadn’t gotten of scot free. Another thing he noticed was the obviously younger face.

“How old is he?” Zoro questioned as he kneeled down and pressed two fingers to his pulse point, sighing in relief as he felt a faint beat.

“17, so four years younger than you.” Luffy mumbled absentmindedly, as he took of his white shirt and ripped thin strips off, to use as makeshift bandages.

Zoro helped him and together they bandaged his side wound, but it definitely needed to be looked at by a medic and stitched up later.

A sudden light blinded them from the side and dimmed down considerably, as they turned their heads simultaneously to the side.

A transparent, white figure stood before them and with a wave of her hand, a light portal suddenly appeared next to her. The Straw Hat Captains eyes widened as he realized who the mystery woman was, “Hikari? That’s you right?”

The womans eyes also slightly widened, as she didn’t expect to be recognized and she simply nodded once in agreement.

Luffy swept his eyes at the two counterparts and he remembered back to the story Robin had told them about the guy who had returned home after meeting his counterpart. ,She came because Zoro came in contact with the other Zoro.’

“Is this the only chance we get? I still have unfinished business, I can’t leave Robin behind.” Luffy felt conflicted, on the one hand he could grab his first mate and finally return home, but leave behind an injured Zoro and captured Robin or he could stay and help them, but sacrifice his possibly only chance to return home.

Hikaris eyes darkened and she finally spoke for the first time, “I don’t owe you anything. You were the one who stepped through my portals without my permission and know you don’t even appreciate my help to return.” She glanced at the bewildered Zoro, who had no clue what was going on and continued, “This is your chance, take it or leave it.”

Before Luffy could say anything else, she suddenly disappeared and the portal started flickering dangerously.

“I’m sorry Zoro, we’ll find another way back, but we can’t leave now.”

Zoro glanced at the portal and back at the unconscious form of his counterpart, “I guess it won’t be too bad to get to know this brat a little. I’m also curious about this world, so I don’t mind staying a little while longer.”

Luffy smiled in relief, as the portal dispersed completely and he grabbed the unconscious body and threw him over his back in a piggyback carry.

“I can carry him if you want to?” Zoro stretched his arms out, motioning for Luffy to pass him over.

Luffy merely sidestepped his reach and shook his head, “No it’s fine, I can carry him. Let’s go and hide in the woods before more pacifista show up, we need to plan before storming in to break Robin and Koala out.”

Zoro had to begrudgingly let Luffy hold his arm, so he wouldn’t walk off in the wrong direction, “You also need to explain why those pacifista look like Franky, why we’re saving Robins counterpart and where the fuck you found this lookalike brat.”

Luffy giggled at his remark and after they found a secluded spot in the woods, Luffy explained everything that had happened to him and what he was currently doing.

“That’s a lot to take in. I guess for now, we should focus on this mission, but there’s no way we can involve him anymore.” Zoro motioned towards the unconscious form and it that same moment, his counterparts eyes blinked open.

Luffy, who had the youngers head resting on his lap, looked down at the lidded eyes, “Welcome back to the world of the living Zoro.”

Aware that his head was laying in Luffys lap, but not bothering to change it, since he found it quite comfy right now and his body ached everywhere, Zoro simply grinned back in greeting.

“I see you’re enjoying your little napping place, but don’t get too used to it buddy. That’s my Captain you’re laying on.”

Zoro startled at the sudden voice and shot upwards into a sitting position, groaning in pain for a second at the sudden movement, he turned his head at the voice and came face to face with a familiar yet different face.

Luffy watched bemused at the staring contest, wondering what reaction he would give.

“Luffy, am I hallucinating or is there a dude who looks like me, but not nearly as good looking and definitely a decade or two older.”

Luffy burst out laughing, while barely holding back the fuming Pirate, from strangling the smirking former Bounty Hunter.

“Who are you calling old you little shit? I’m only 21. I’ll cut you up.” Zoro roared back, straining against his Captains hold.

“Relax Zoro, I’m just joking. I have to admit though, I didn’t expect to ever see my counterpart. Also it’s gonna get pretty confusing sharing the same name, while were are in close proximity.”

Zoro finally calmed down and Luffy released him from his clutches, “Yeah, there’s no way I’m changing my name. I don’t think you need to change yours either, we can just call you brat.”

Luffy ignored the youngers annoyed shout and said, “How about Sora?”

The two mossheads turned their attention to Luffy in question.

“In the month that I have been here, I’ve realized that a lot of things might seem similar at first glance, but they are actually vastly different. The grass and the trees are even a different shade of brown and green, compared to the ones in our world. The sky though, is exactly the same. I’ve looked at the sky at night and I know we even have the same constellations. Sora means sky, so I thought it would be a nice name, since it’s what stuck out to me the most. Also it’s four letters just like Zoro and they even share the same second and third letter.”

“I don’t have any attachment to my name, so I don’t mind if you call me that.” The now newly named Sora said.

“Alright,Roronoa Sora it is. By the way you’re gonna have to stay here while Zoro and I storm the place to rescue the girls.” Luffy stood up, with Zoro following suit.

“What? No! I’m coming with.” Sora moved to stand up, but Luffy immediately halted his protest, by gently pushing him back.”

“You’re badly injured, there’s no way I’m letting you fight against another pacifista. Just consider yourself backup incase we don’t make it. Give us an hour and if we’re not back by that time, you’ll come save our ass, right?” Luffy gave him a reassuring grin and a thumbs up, as Sora reluctantly agreed and leaned back against the tree.

“Let’s go wreck this place.”

“Roger, Captain.”

Sora watched the duo leave the clearing, as he pressed his hands against his side to further slow down the bleeding. ,Why the fuck is he carrying four swords? I gotta see him fight.’

With these thoughts in mind, he pulled himself to his feet and walked to the edge of the woods. He made sure that he was still hidden behind the cover of the trees and made himself as comfortable as possible, to watch the show.

——

Luffy and Zoro stood before the building and watched the gathered group of pacifista. It seems the marines had realized that they were gonna need a few more pacifista to take these two down.

Luffy cracked his knuckles and didn’t waste another second before running closer to the group and unleashing a Gum Gum Gatling. Zoro was right behind him, taking down enemies left and right, with his Three-Sword Style.

If the enemies were human, it would have been considered a massacre. This was only collateral damage and nothing more. At least until the the human guards arrived, those though were easily taken care of with Luffys conquerers haki. It didn’t take long before they finished their little fight and they stepped inside the building. They took the stairs to the basement, where Luffy could sense multiple presences.

Downstairs they found Robin and Koala chained to the wall with a guard each pointing a pistol to their skulls. Dr. Vegapunk stood before them with anger etched into his face. A single pacifista stood before him as his guard.

“You imbeciles dare destroy all those pacifista, that I worked so hard to create?! Do you know how much it costs to produce one? All that money, time and effort wasted. Give yourself over now or else I will kill these two.” Dr. Vegapunk sneered and the guards pressed the gun even closer to the captives heads.

Zoro glanced at his Captain, leaving the choice up to him. Luffy frowned, he could try and knock the guards unconscious, but there was always a chance that their will might be strong enough to withstand his conquerers haki and with his attempt it could trigger them to shoot.

Luffy sighed, put his arms forward in a sign of surrender and Zoro followed without complaint. Dr. Vegapunk laughed and ordered the pacifista to put handcuffs on them. As the cyborg tightened the cuffs around him, Luffy bore holes into his face and with an unsure voice he whispered, “Franky?”

The Cyborg stilled for only a millisecond, before locking his cuffs to the hook above him and turning around to do the same to Zoro. Luffy caught the pause though and said, “I know you don’t wanna do this Franky. Help us and we’ll help you. I won’t let them hurt you anymore. We’ve already beat all the pacifista, they don’t stand a chance.”

“HEY! What are you whispering there? Are you still not done PX-0?” rang out the impatient Scientists voice.

Franky finished cuffing Zoro and returned to Dr. Vegapunks side, who grinned menacingly at the duo, “Ah, so heroic of you to give yourself up for your friends, I hope you know that you just sacrificed yourself, because I’m not gonna let you live. Guards, direct your weapons to the two suicidal idiots and take them out.”

The guards pointed their guns to Luffy and Zoro, and stepped closer.

“Any last words?” Dr. Vegapunk asked in a smug tone.

Luffy connected his eyes with Frankys for a few seconds, before answering, “This is where it ends, but I’m afraid it’s not for us.”

Confusion flickered on the Scientists face, before he suddenly had the Cyborgs arm wrapped around his neck, in a chokehold.

“PX-0, what are you doing? Let me go this instant or you’ll regret it!” came out his choked voice.

The guards immediately switched their targets to the pacifista, but the Scientist ordered them not to shoot, since he was in the way and he also still needed Franky, especially after they had already destroyed all the other pacifista.

As the guards finally lowered their weapons, Luffy spoke up, “Bad choice Doctor.” and he let out a burst of conquerers haki knocking out both the guards and Dr. Vegapunk.

Luffy stared surprised at the slumped form of the Scientist, “I did not expect it to work on him.”

“Well that was quite something, but would you mind freeing us now? These shackles are rubbing my skin raw.” The till now quite Koala said.

Franky unceremoniously dropped the scientist and went to free all four of their shackles.

“This is not how I expected this mission to go at all.” mumbled Robin deep in thought.

Luffy stepped up to the cyborg and surprised him with a hug, “That was great, Franky. Now you can finally return home, to Water Seven.”

Franky smiled at his enthusiasm, but shook his head in denial, “It’s all I have ever wanted since they brought me here, but there is no life for me in Water Seven. The marines would surely not let me live there in peace. I don’t want to be experimented on anymore. It would be for the best if you just killed me, like your mission entailed.”

Both Robin and Luffys eyes widened and she questioned, “How did you...?”

“It was obvious, what other reason would the revolutionary army have to come here?”

Koala stepped into the conversation with, “It’s true that, that was our mission, but wouldn’t it be a better idea to just bring you along with us back to the base? With the revolutionary army, you would be save and the marines wouldn’t even be able to get to your body, dead or alive.”

Silence engulfed the room as everyone just stared at her in wonder.

“My, my, I didn’t know you could think that far Koala.”

“Robin-chan! That’s so mean.” Koala puffed out her cheeks in indignation and Robin chuckled.

“Yosh, let’s get out of here and go treat Sora, before he bleeds to death.” Luffy announced, turning around and leaving the basement.

“Sora?” Koala asked confused, looking at Robin, but she only shrugged, showing that she had no clue either.

Franky tied the Scientist up, slung him over his shoulder and followed the others out of the basement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you like it? Leave a comment down below with your opinion.


	16. Chapter 16

Robin and Zoro followed Luffy to the woods, while Koala and Franky brought the scientists to one of the marine ships, which they were gonna hijack.

“Ah Sora, you still with us?” Luffy shock the unconscious male, but didn’t receive a reaction.

Robin knelt next to him and when she recognized the green haired male, she slowly turned her head to face the one eyed Zoro, “Ah I see, I’m guessing this is one of your nakama then, Luffy?”

“Mhm yep, Zoro’s my first mate and to avoid confusion, we decided to name him Sora,” here he pointed at the younger male, who was slumped against the tree, “This just reminded me, but how did you even get here Zoro?”

“Well first of all, you went missing about a month ago and while we were searching for you, not only on Wano, but on the neighboring islands, I came across a portal. I called Robin and told her about the light portal and she told me to wait for her, but the portal was disappearing, so I decided to step through it before I lost the chance to. Afterwards I just followed your vivre card to this island.” Zoro said, sitting down on Soras other side and frowning at the blood stained makeshift bandages.

“I would have said the same thing in my counterparts place, it’s really reckless to go through a portal when you don’t know whats on the other side, or if there is even a way back. Anyways, we should take him inside and find an infirmary to patch him up.” Robin stood up from her knelt position and Zoro picked up his counterpart in a bridal carry.

Franky joined the group on their way back, reporting that Koala had stayed behind to look after their prisoner.

Inside, they finally found the infirmary and after finding a still conscious doctor hiding behind a desk, they forced him to give Sora medical care.

“I stitched his side and dressed the other wounds, but he lost a lot of blood and he needs a blood transfusion now. Anyone now what blood type he has?” The Doctor asked placing down the needle and thread, which he used to stitch his patient up.

“Probably the same as mine, you can just take my blood.” Zoro put his arm on the table.

The Doctor looked bewildered, “Just because you’re his older brother doesn’t mean you have the same blood type... whatever it’s not like I care.”

Zoro looked confused at the doctors statement, meannwhile Luffy burst out laughing and Robin tried to stifle her giggles with her hand.

“Wait, what? Who said he was my younger brother? He is just my counterpart.” Zoro said, glaring at his Captains laughter.

“Weird way of saying that he is your twin, but you do you bro.” Franky placed his hand on the fuming mossheads shoulder.

“He is no.. ah whatever, just take my blood already you shitty doctor.”

After the Doctor had decided that enough blood was donated, Luffy hit his neck, knocking him out cold. Shortly afterwards they tied all the unconscious marines and other workers outside and destroyed the whole building. Franky finished it off by spewing fire from his mouth, burning down the ruble and letting the wind carry away the ashes.

They left behind the little boat that they had reached the island with and got on the ship Koala had hijacked.

They left Sora to rest in the infirmary of the ship and Koala didn’t even question the appearance of a second mosshead.

The group of four gathered around the helm and discussed their next plan of action.

“I just reported back to headquarters, some of our members are on Sabaody Archipelago. Koala, Franky and Dr. Vegapunk will be going with them back to base. I will be staying with you two on Sabaody, so we can find Luffys counterpart. One of our informants on Sabaody mentioned hearing the name Luffy, while sitting in a bar. It seems a group was talking about him and there is a chance it might be the people that killed or hopefully kidnapped him. I will go talk to that informant, to try to get a description of them. Everything clear?” Robin asked, looking around the group.

“There is an amusement park on Sabaody, can Zoro, Sora and I hang out there while you question him?” Luffy jumped in his spot, giddy to spent some time on the rides, since the last time he was there, he couldn’t enjoy it enough, because his mermaid friend camie got kidnapped.

“Only if he is healed enough to walk by that time and no strenuous activities for him. Also don’t let him drink any alcoholic beverages.” Robin instructed.

Zoro said something about letting a man decide for himself if he should drink, but Robins glare shut him up pretty quick.

A whole week passed, since they left San Faldo and Sora had woken up four days ago. The trip had surprisingly been quite and peaceful the whole time, until now.

A loud boom sounded and a second later the whole ship shook dangerously. Everyone gathered on the deck to see what was going on.

“What the hell, there is a huge ship!” Franky screamed out, pointing at the massive ship not too far away. Even from that distance, it was shadowing their marine vessel with its size and it was coming closer by the second.

“Oh no, I can’t believe our misfortune. Are we really gonna die by the hands of a yonko, because we’re sailing on a marine ship?” Robin looked through a pair of binoculars at the flag flying proudly on their mast.

At Luffys insistence, she handed it over to him, so he could have a look for himself, “Oh, it’s the Whitebeard Pirates?!”

Zoro snatched the binoculars from him and took a peak with his lone eye, “Hell yeah, I didn’t have a good fight in a long time.”

Robin looked at his excitement in shock, “Didn’t you just fight against the pacifista like a week ago?”

“I said a good fight, not a lame one.”

“Is the old man still alive in this world?” Luffy stuck his pinky in his nose, showing absolutely no fear at the prospect of having to fight a yonko.

“Of course he is. He is the strongest man in the world. I heard some rumors that they even promoted a newly joined member as their second division commander, since he was that strong.” Robin bit her lip in worry, as Franky steered the ship away from another cannon blast.

“Who?”

“Someone named Sabo? Apparently he was a former bounty hunter or something.

“Oh Sabo?” Zoro looked at his Captain to see his reaction.

Luffy grinned in mischief and said, “I’m gonna go over for a chat.”

Zoro and Sora immediately latched onto him, before he could leave them behind and they soon flew through the air and onto the moby dick, leaving behind a gaping Franky and Koala, and Robin shaking her head in resignation.

Luffy slipped through their grip deliberately and dived for the moby to reach it first. He inflated his body to a ballon, so the duo could land safely on him.

As they stood up to dust themselves of, they immediately got surrounded by the crew members with spears, sword, guns and other weapons pointed at them.

The First Division Commander stepped through the wall of bodies and in front of them. A second of silence passed as Marco inspected them and frowned at their atire, “You don’t look like marines to me.”

Luffy scowled in disgust and stuck his tongue out, “That’s because we aren’t. We hijacked the marine ship, so I don’t appreciate you trying to blow it up, while me and my friends are on it.”

Marco rose his brow in wonder, “Oh and what are you gonna do about it?”

“I’ll beat your ass if necessary.”

Izo stepped up next to his brother and glared at the straw hat wearing raven, “How ballsy of you to think that you can take on Marco, let alone the Whitebeard Pirates.”

“What’s the point of living life freely, if I’m gonna be scared by a mere yonko.” Luffy challenged and let out a burst of conquerers haki. One by one, crew members started dropping like flies, until a different kings haki clashed against his in a protective way. Whitebeard was standing behind the group with an unreadable look on his face.

Luffy held up the force for another second and let it disperse slowly afterwards.

Marco stepped to the side and let his father to the front, but stood by his side in case of an attack.

The two conquerers stared at each other for a few seconds, while everyone stood tense, waiting for what they thought would be an inevitable clash.

They were surprised when the next moment the duo broke their stare and started laughing.

“Gurararara. Brat, you sure are something. I can feel your strength, but you definitely are not yet strong enough to take on the world. What is your dream? No one becomes this strong without a goal in life.”

“I’m gonna be Pirate King someday, so of course I have to be strong. My priority for now though, is to first return to my own world. My crew is waiting for me there and without them I can’t become Pirate King.” Luffy said, shocking the pirates around him, not only by his declarations of being the future Pirate King, but also being from another world.

“Ah, that’s a bummer. I wanted to have you as my son, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be. You can be on your way then, we will not attack someone who’s trying to return home.”

Without question, the Whitebeard Pirates lowered their weapons and stepped back.

“Wait, Luffy!”

Luffy turned his head at the familiar voice and saw the blond logia user step through the crowd.

“Are you really from another dimension?.... I was wondering how you knew my name when we met. I knew I hadn’t introduced myself yet. Does that mean you have the same people in your world? If so, you must know my counterpart then.”

“Sabo, you know him?” The Fourth Division Commander asked, as he stepped up next to their newest sibling.

“Remember how I told you about the marine who gave me my brothers devil fruit?”

“Oh yeah, a marine though?”

“Shishishi, I kinda took the place of my counterpart in this world, when I landed here. I’m a pirate, but he is a marine, so I had to act like one to blend in.” Luffy added in.

“Are the two behind you counterparts too?” Thatch pointed at the two green haired swordsman behind him, to which Luffy gave an enthusiastic nod in return.

“To answer your former question Sabo, you and Aces counterparts are my brothers.”

A silence settled on the deck as Sabos eyes nearly bulged out of his head, “Eeeehhh, brothers?!?”

Luffy nodded and a forlorn look appeared on his face, “We swore brotherhood when I was seven and they were ten. Sabo ended up joining the Revolutionary Army and Ace had his own pirate crew until he joined the Whitebeard Pirates and became the Second Division Commander.”

“Oh wow. That’s a little different. None of you became marines like gramps wanted?” Sabo asked, imagining a life, growing up with a little brother like Luffy, not knowing that his counterpart got separated pretty early from his brothers.

“Ah no, nothing shitty gramps said, could have made us marines. I’m glad too, I can’t imagine having to stand by and let my family get executed in front of me. Aces execution was held two years ago, it caused a massive war between the whitbeards and marines. I was there too, to save my brother, but he ended up having to protect me while we were running from the marines. He died, because I was too weak to protect myself and Whitebeard sacrificed himself, so his sons could escape. This is a reminder of my failure that day.” Luffy put a hand to his X-shaped scar, which was visible since he was currently wearing an open hawaiian shirt.

Luffy was surprised to be pulled into a hug by the blond pirate and tried to look at his face, but Sabo just pushed his face into his neck.

“You idiot and less than two weeks ago, you were trying to cheer me up, but here you are talking about failure. If your Ace was anything like mine, then he would’ve also hit you for thinking like that. I’m gonna miss you, so I’m gonna have to remind myself that the next time I see you, it won’t really be you. Can’t go around being friendly with a marine.”

After Sabo released him, Luffy hummed, “I wonder if you’re ever gonna meet him, we still don’t know if he’s alive, but I sure hope he is, because he might just be the only way back home for us.”

Marco interrupted the duo with, “Sorry to intrude, I know your world is different from ours, but I don’t like hearing the downfall of my father and a brother. Is there a chance something similar might happen here?”

“My son, are you this afraid of losing me? You know I won’t live forever and dying by protecting my sons is probably the best way to leave this earth.” Whitebeard put his giant palm on Marcos back in a comforting way.

“I obviously know you won’t live forever, but I still want to keep you with us for as long as possible, pops.” Marco grumbled, his cheeks turning slightly pink from embarrassment.

Before the Yonko Captain could say anything in return, Luffy started talking, “Ace told me that someone in his division had killed someone named Thatch and stolen his devil fruit. Ace hunted him down to bring that traitor to justice, but he lost the fight against him and that traitor gave Ace over to the marines to be executed.”

Thatchs face turned white, “Oh man, my poor counterpart.”

Luffy send him a sympathetic look and continued, “I only later on learned his name and since this is a different dimension, I can’t guarantee that his counterpart is also a traitor. I can give you his name, but what you do with that information or if you want to know his name in the first place, is your choice.”

“The thought of one of my sons killing not one, but also turning in another to be executed, hurts me deeply. I see the logic in knowing his name though.” Whitebeards booming voice said.

Luffy closed his eyes for a few seconds and sensed every single members presence on the crew, when he opened them again, he said, “He currently isn’t on the ship, I’ll tell you his name and all of you can keep an eye on him and decide for yourself if he is a traitor or not, but please do so before he kills someone.”

The crew all simultaneously turned serious and nodded their heads in agreement.

“Marshall D Teach”

Whitebeard closed his eyes, thinking back to the time when he had let that young boy join his crew. To be betrayed by someone who he had considered his son for so many years was unbelievable, “Thank you for this information, we will keep an eye out for him, without raising suspicion.”

“For your sake, I really hope that he is a good guy here.” Luffy said.

“Captain, we should get back to the ship. The others might worry and think that we’ve started a fight.” Zoro stated, gaining the attention of the group.

“He almost did, that Kings Haki was fucking wicked. Too bad we didn’t get to fight anyone though.” Sora said, partially excited at having witnessed such force of power and not be on the receiving end of it and partially disappointed that he didn’t get to fight any strong enemy.

“Agreed, although they would have swept the floor with you anyway.” Zoro lazily said, not even turning in Soras direction.

Murder shone in Soras eyes, as he walked up to him and grabbed him by his dark green coat, “You’re really trying to rile me up here aren’t you?”

Zoro grinned down at him, put him in headlock and started rubbing his knuckles on the protesting teens head.

“Ah yeah, let’s leave. It was nice seeing you all, good luck on your journey.” Luffy waved at the group, grabbed the railing and slingshot himself back to the marine vessel, after the two swordsman grabbed ahold of him.

Sabo ran up to the railing and waved back with a huge smile on his face, “Stay save, future Pirate King!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this whole thing yesterday and then forgot to post it. :/ So here it is, tell me what you think about it.


	17. Chapter 17

“Sabaody is in sight, get ready to dock.” Franky announced, while steering the helm.

Everyone gathered on deck, Koala pulling a tied and gagged up, protesting Dr. Vegapunk behind her.

“Steer us towards groove 16 Franky, from there you and Koala go with the other revolutionaries. You three troublemakers stay together and don’t get separated.” Robin passed Sora a baby den den mushi, so they could stay in contact while they split ways.

At groove 16, they came across a group of six people dressed in black cloaks.

“Wow, they sure know how to blend in.” Zoro said sarcastically, causing Luffy to burst out laughing. Sora rolled his eyes, but agreed internally.

After a goodbye between the two groups, with Luffy reluctantly letting Franky go. The trio wasted no time after, to go to the amusement park.

“Oh, oh, I want to go on that ride and that one and that one too...” Luffy rambled on, running around the place.

Sora couldn’t count on one hand, how many times he had to grab Zoro and steer him back in the right direction.

“Are you sure you are my counterpart? How do you have such a bad sense of direction. Scratch that, you actually have none. You can’t even follow someone in a straight line.” Sora grumbled, as they once again almost lost Zoro to the crowd.

“Tch, how do you know if I’m going into the wrong direction, if you don’t know my destination?” Zoro shot back, leaving Sora baffled at the sheer audacity of this man.

“You gotta be fucking kidding me, right? I know damn well that we’re supposed to be following Luffy, so your destination is where he is going.” Sora asked, crossing his arms and frowning at his supposed counterpart.

“Speaking of Luffy, where even is he?”

Zoro and Sora stared at each other, then at the crowd, then back at each other. “Fuck” they said, simultaneously.

“You have his vivre card, right? Use it!” Sora urged.

Zoro stuck his hands in his pockets and turned white in the face when he grasped empty air.

“What is it?”

“I... I think I might have lost it.”

...

...

“I think I might just loose my mind.” Sora pressed his hand into his shoulder length green hair and groaned in despair.

“Well it’s Luffy we’re talking about and if I know my Captain well, which I do, he’ll soon cause trouble and we’ll be able to find him in the commotion.”

Sora stared at his nonchalant expression in disbelief and grabbed his arm pulling him along, “How about we find him before he causes trouble? I’m scared he’s gonna come across a celestial dragon, get annoyed and punch him or something, but no, what am I saying? He’s not that crazy.”

A memory from long ago flashed before Zoros eyes and he nodded along, “Yeah haha, he definitely isn’t that crazy.”

Meanwhile somewhere on the other side of the groove.

Luffy was munching on some tako-yaki, whose smell he had followed to the stand to. Turning back around he stared blankly at the crowd and frowned at the absence of his two green haired companions. ,Did they not follow me? Oh well, I’ll find them later.’

Continuing to munch on his food, Luffy walked through the crowd, frowning at the long waiting lines for the coolest looking rides.

He stopped in his tracks when he felt someone watching him. He snapped his head into that direction, but he didn’t see anyone looking at him. He continued walking for a few minutes, until he had the same feeling again and this time when he looked, he caught the sight of someone quickly turning and walking away.

They were wearing a dark blue cloak, which reminded Luffy of the revolutionary armies garb, but he was sure that this person was no revolutionary. The color was different and this person was quite obviously following him, which the revolutionaries had no reason to do.

Deciding that his stalker was probably crowd shy, he left the amusement park and walked of to an empty groove. He found an empty park and sat on a bench, observation haki on full alert.

It didn’t take long before the cloaked person appeared and he sat himself down on a bench opposite his. 

They both studied each other in silence, but Luffy couldn’t make out his face in the shadow of his cloak. His presence didn’t feel familiar either.

The silence was abruptly broken by the stranger, “I’m surprised that you’re out here and not already off the island.”

Luffy rose his brow at the statement, “Is there a reason I shouldn’t be here?”

“I just would have expected you to want to get away as fast as possible. Which reminds me, how did you even get out?” The cloaked figure suddenly stood up and started approaching Luffy.

“Get out of where? What are you going on about?” Luffy also stood up, but didn’t move away from the bench.

The figure finally came to a stop, a foot in front of him. The next second, an arm reached out and lighting fast, grabbed him around his throat.

The sudden action caught him off guard, but Luffy recomposed himself quickly, grabbed the offending appendage and tried to pry it off his throat.

His eyes locked onto the hand and he suddenly froze at the familiar sight of it. Stunned, Luffy loosened his grip and stared at the tattooed hand that spelled DEATH across his fingers.

“Torao?” Luffys meek voice gasped out between choked breaths. This close he could partially see under the hood. Dark grey eyes stared back at him without a hint of emotion behind them.

The Straw Hat Captain gritted his teeth, finally pulled his fist back and slammed it into his face.

Laws head snapped back and his hand lost its grip, letting Luffy break free from his hold. Luffy jumped to the side, taking steps backwards to put some distance between them.

Laws hood surprisingly stayed up, as he cracked his neck from the punch, “We can do this the easy way, where you come willingly with me or we can do this the hard way, and I’ll bring your body parts separated and tied up in a bag.... Just like last time.”

“Like last time? Wha... I seriously have no idea what the hell you’re talking about. I have never met you before in my life and I’m not going anywhere with you.” Luffy said, technically not lying, since he hadn’t met Law before, at least not this one.

“Don’t tell me you have memory loss or something. You couldn’t have forgotten about little old me, right? You did see me everyday for over two months now.” The Surgeon pulled forth his nodachi from his cloak and unsheathed it.

*Flashback*

“You idiot, why did you go and get yourself kidnapped and for a whole fricking month? Do you know how worried I was?”

“It’s good to have you back Luffy.”

“Either way, our best bet would be to find my counterpart, but I don’t even know where to start looking for him.”

*Flashback end*

‘Torao kidnapped my counterpart? No, Toraos counterpart kidnapped me. Wait no... ahh this is so confusing.’

Luffy immediately snapped back to attention and jumped back from the slash that was comming his way, thankful that his observation haki had warmed him, “What do you want from me, Trafalgar D Water Law?”

Abruptly, Law froze in his spot. Luffy could sense anger radiating off him in waves.

“How do you know that name?” Law ran up to him quickly swinging his nodachi, slicing the air in front of him.

Luffy jumped to the side, barely dogging the slash, “I have no obligation to tell you shit.”

“Oh, I’ll make you talk. You’re always stubborn in the beginning, but I know how you tick. You’ve been under my palm for so long now, I know you inside out.”

Luffy coated his arms in armament haki and crossed them to block the swords attack. Luffy gritted his teeth at the pressure of the also armament enforced sword.

They held their stand for a few seconds, before they broke apart and simultaneously jumped backwards. 

“Gum Gum Rifle” Luffy could sense the surprise as he streched his arm back and started twisting it, before delivering a short range punch into his gut.

Caught of guard Law flew and crashed into a tree, but stood up fairly quickly.

“You gave me two options, so I’m also gonna give you two. Either you take me to Luffy and let me free him, or I beat your ass and force you to show me the way to his location.”

...

“Quite are we? I guess you chose the hard way.” Luffy mocked, stretching his arms backwards, causing Law to tense up.

The Rubberman let his arms fly forwards, but the Doctor was prepared this time and was able to dodge safely.

“Are you not Luffy? You look extremely similar to him, but the last time I checked he didn’t have a scar on his chest or the one beneath your eye, neither did he have a devil fruit.” Law spit on the ground and frowned at the red tint.

“No, I’m Luffy, but not the one you kidnapped. Would you believe me if I said I was from another world?” Luffy said, tilting his head innocently to the side.

Law tightened his hold on the nodachi and grinned in the shadow of his cloak, “Another world huh? Sounds like you could have a lot of interesting information. Now I want to get my hands on you even more.”

Luffy sighed at the clear challenge and switched to gear second to fight him. Even in his faster form, Law was holding his own and deflecting his jet pistols left and right. While he couldn’t dodge or deflect every single attack, he still got in hits of his own.

Luffy at first had thought that he might have an advantage against him, since he was very familiar with Toraos fighting style, but this guy wasn’t using any of them. He was fighting like a swordsman, which slightly reminded Luffy of Mihawk casually swinging his huge sword, with ease on Marineford.

They parted after over half an hour and Luffy frowned at his opponent. ‘He has a different fighting style than Torao, but he is still really strong. He stood back up even after taking my gear third punch, head on.’

It wasn’t needed to be said that both were using armament haki, coating every single punch and sword strike and observation haki was constantly active.

Luffy was bleeding from several minor wounds on his body and he knew even under the disguise of the cloak, Law wasn’t faring of much better, with multiple bruises doting his whole body.

Speaking of the cloak it was starting to annoy him. Making a split second decision, he dashed forward crashing into Laws body, causing him to fall backwards and land on his back. Luffy ignored his painful groan, settled himself on top of his chest and ripped of the hood.

Both of them froze, as Law stared shocked at having his hood thrown off and Luffy was surpised by the multiple white spots that marked the face of the man beneath him. The white spots trailed down his neck and disappeared beneath his hoody. Know that he looked closer he could make out the same white spots on his hands. Which he hadn’t seen before, since he was distracted by the tattoos and Law was a naturally pale man to begin with.

The body beneath him suddenly turned his head to the side and hacked up blood on the ground, “Shit,not again.”

Meanwhile, the two green haired swordsman were seen walking through the amusement park, with a bottle in each hand.

“How long has it been already since we lost him? Sora asked, after swallowing another mouthful of sake.

Zoro mimicked him and said, “Around an hour maybe? It’s weird that he hasn’t caused a loud enough commotion yet, that would gather our attention. Normally he...”

Zoro cut himself off and stopped in the middle of the crowd, causing Sora to stop next to him in confusion, “What is it? Did you see Luffy?”

He looked in the direction that Zoro was looking at, but he only caught a glimpse of white hair.

“Smoker?!” both said at the same time, turned to each other and dashed behind a building for cover.

“He’s the last thing we need now. You think he is after Luffy?” Zoro asked.

Sora nodded, “For sure, Luffys counterpart is his brother. So while he probably thinks his brother just betrayed the marines, he definitely would want to get answers from him.”

“Even if we take Smoker down, surely back up would arrive after. We have to find Luffy before him and get the hell out of here.” The First Mate left the cover of the building and moved alongside the shadow of the crowd.

Sora ran after him, keeping an eye out for any marines close by.

“Are we really gonna check every single island we come across, to find your brother, sir?” Tashigi asked, nervously fumbling with her katana.

Smoker, who was already in a bad mood, glared at her for a second, before softening his expression in apology. Tashigi didn’t deserve to be on the receiving end of his frustration and exhaustion. Smoker hadn’t had a peaceful sleep ever since his brother had betrayed the marines. The thought of it somehow being his fault, plagued him and gave him dark circles under his eyes, because of the lack of sleep.

“I’m not returning to base before I find him.”

Tashigi watched her superior with worry shining in her eyes. Her resolve strengthened, she would help him find Commodore Luffy no matter what.

*Back with Luffy and Law*

While Luffy was hitting hard, he knew he hadn’t gotten in any hard strikes that would have caused internal bleeding.

“Amber lead syndrome, is that what you have?” Luffy asked, surprising the man, causing him to snap his head back to him.

“How do you know that?” Laws question passed his bloody lips, before he wiped his lips with the back of his hand.

“I have a friend who had the same disease, but he was able to cure it with the help of the ope ope no mi.” Luffy answered, finally standing up from Laws chest and offering him a hand to pull him up.

Law stunned at the offer, grabbed the offered hand and let him be pulled to his feet, “That’s impossible, I’m the only survivor of Flevance. There is no cure for this disease.”

He rummaged through his coat for a second, before pulling out a pill bottle. He took out two capsules and dry swallowed them, “The disease not only weakens your body, but also shortens your lifespan drastically. I was able to make a medicine to prevent dying from it, but it’s only temporary. I have to take soo much of it and it won’t work forever. That’s why I kidnapped the Commodore, so I can experiment on him with different medications and see the effect it has on the body. I even tried to give him the amber lead poisoning, so I could try to cure it from him first, but his body rejected the poison immediately. At this point I don’t even know why I’m trying anymore. Living is just pain.”

“Are you still the Captain of the Heart Pirates here? Won’t Bepo, Shachi, Penguin and your other nakama be sad if you die?” Luffy settled himself back into the bench he had first sat on.

Laws eyes snapped to him, “You ask the weirdest questions. The answer is yes and maybe, but what do you mean with here?”

“Remember how I said that I was from a different world? The person with the disease I was talking about, is the Trafalgar Law from my dimension. A lot of things are different here, so I’m not fully surprised that you don’t have the ope ope no mi like him. If you want to live, find it Law. I’m afraid that it’s your only cure.” Luffy stared at the unmoving body of the Doctor.

Law shock himself from his frozen state and glared at the younger male, “Do you know how hard it is to not only find a devil fruit, but a specific one at that?”

Luffy frowned, thinking hard on all the information he had gotten from Torao on the devil fruit, “There is a high chance that Doflamingo has it and if he does, he probably hasn’t fed it to anyone unless he thought they were good enough of a doctor, to give him that weird immortal surgery thingy. I forgot how it was called, but that’s what Doflamingo is after. Maybe join his crew, get him to trust you and then steal it from right under his nose?”

The till now stoic Doctor trembled for a second, before bursting out in laughter, surprising Luffy.

“That’s the most risky and ridiculously simple plan I’ve ever heard, but it’s a start. You were more useful to me than your counterpart. I don’t know why you want to save him, but I guess I owe you for this information.” Law tossed him something from his pocket and Luffy caught it, before it fell down.

It was a set of keys and he looked up for an explanation, Law smirked at his confused face, “You see that building to the far right, that’s were he is. The building is empty except for him, because my crew has a day off. I’ll be leaving now, good luck, Mugiwara-ya.”

Luffy smiled at the familiar nickname, he hadn’t been called that since he came to this world. He hadn’t realized how much he had missed his epithet. He watched the Surgeon of Death walk away and called after him, “Good luck to you too, be careful of Doflamingo, he’s a cunning bastard.”

Laws answer only came in the form a chuckle, before he disappeared behind a different building.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, I had to add my boy Law in. I wonder if anyone guessed that he was the kidnapper. I know he should have died at 14 without the fruit, but I thought he was brilliant enough to invent some kind of medicine to prolong his lifespan. Sadly even with his experiments he couldn’t find a cure. I guess he’ll have to hunt for the fruit off camera ;).


	18. Chapter 18

Luffy didn’t want to waste another second, so he immediately ran to the building that Law had indicated at. He reached an iron door, fumbled with the keys for a second, before finding the right one and unlocking the door.

He stepped in and in the darkness of the hall, his hand searched the side of the wall for a light switch. When his hand came in contact with one, the hall shone brightly before him. It was white and clean, with doors lined on each side.

He walked through the corridor and checked every room for his counterpart, since he couldn’t sense him with observation haki. Finally when he reached the end of the corridor, he came across a door with a plate on it, that read “Guests”.

Luffy scoffed at the plate and opened the door, fully knowing that no guest would be held against their will. Prisoner would have been a better inscription.

His eyes immediately locked on to the figure in the corner, who flinched at the sound of the heavy door unlocking. Stepping closer, Luffy could make out someone who was obviously his counterpart. His wrist and ankles were cuffed and both were attached with a chain to the wall. He had a blindfold on and another cloth tied around his mouth, gagging him.

The “Guest” flinched and tried to move backwards, when he was already pressed against the wall.

“Hey, hey, I’m not gonna do anything to you. I’m here to free you.” Luffy tried to calm him down and moved slowly to the Prisoner, taking the gag out of his mouth.

At the sound of his voice, his head tilted to the side in interest, “You’re not Trafalgar or one of his crewmates? Why does your voice sound so familiar?”

Luffy chuckled, before plopping himself down in front of him and swiftly ripping of the blindfold, “Because it’s your voice.”

The two identical eyes met each other, one widened in astonishment and the other narrowing down to inspect his injuries.

“Did that bastard make a fucking clone out of me?” snapped the marine, practically growling at him.

“Hey! I’m not a clone, maybe you’re one.” Luffy retorted back.

His counterpart froze for a second, seeming to be contemplating his answer, “Am I? It would make sense if I have the same memories as the real me. Omg, I’m a clone? Am I gonna get disposed of when I’m deemed useless? Am I never gonna see Smoker-nii again?”

Luffy panicked at the sight of the tears streaming down his cheeks, “Ah nooo, I’m sorry, I was just joking. You’re the real Commodore Monkey D Luffy and Vice Admiral Smokers brother. I’m just your counterpart from another dimension.”

Teary eyes met his apologetic ones, “Another dimension? Are you evil then?”

“Evil?”

“Yeah, if it’s a different world, you could be my total opposite and since I’m not evil, you must be.”

“No, I’m just a Pirate.”

...

...

“That just proves me right!” the Marine yelled, glaring at his evil counterpart.

“Oh, alright then, since I’m so evil, I’ll leave you here instead of saving you like I had intended to do.” Luffy stood up and started to walk away.

“No wait, I take it back. You’re a good pirate, the nicest one.” He stood up, tried to ran after him, but his chains cut him short, he tripped and fell flat on his face. He groaned miserably on the floor and Luffy turned back around.

The Pirate stared blankly at the red puddle forming beneath him and widened his eyes when he realized what it was, “You’re bleeding!”

“Than.. thanks for stating the obvious. I heal fast, but even my body can’t keep up with all the incisions that bastard gave. He was saying how lucky I was, that I heal so fast. Lucky my ass, look what kinda situation it got me in. Being used as a test subject.” The marine spit out, anger clearly in his voice.

He looked up, realized his companion wasn’t in front of him anymore and panic gripped his heart. ,Did he change his mind again? I knew I shouldn’t have trusted a pirate. They’re always up to no go...’

“Are you having negative thoughts? Your face sure looks like it.” The familiar voice interrupted him from his musings and he snapped his head back up.

“Where were you? I thought you left?”

“Let’s get something straight here. I only need to directly touch your skin, so a portal to my home can open. The only reason I’m not doing that yet, is because my first mate isn’t with me and I only get one chance with the portal, so Zoro has to be there with me, to also pass through. That’s why I went to get some gloves to carry you out of here. Besides, I’d feel bad using you and leaving you behind. Which reminds me, I might have took your place while I was here and then betrayed the marines.”

“So if I return now, they’re gonna bust my ass and put me behind bars? What’s the point of me leaving this place, if I’m just gonna be chained somewhere else? Oh no, you asshole. My brother thinks I betrayed him?!?!” In a burst of adrenaline, the Marine surged forward and grabbed Luffys collar, shaking him back and forth.

“Stop... you’re... gonna ... make me... puke.” Luffy yanked himself free from the clutches, without having to worry about skin contact, thanks to the medical gloves he found.

He started freeing him from his cuffs, “I’m sorry alright, if it makes you feel better, we can search for a den den mushi, you can call Smokey and we can tell him that it was me and not you.”

The Marine accepted the hand to stand up and stared at the keys dangling between the Pirates fingers, “This reminds me, how did you get in here undetected and how did you find those keys?”

“Law gave me the keys after I told him there was a different way to cure his disease, so he doesn’t need you anymore.”

“Wait, so we don’t have to sneak out? I’m totally free? He won’t come after my ass the moment I leave?”

“Nope.”

The Marines eyes darkened and he said in a low tone, “I’m definitely going after him though. He beat me the first time around, but I’ll get stronger and beat his ass next time. I’m gonna go look for some fresh clothes and a den den mushi.”

Luffy smiled at the determination on his counterparts face and nodded, “Alright then, if you can walk on your own, I’ll wait outside for you.”

They parted ways in the corridor and soon Luffy stepped back out into the park.

Suddenly, from the corner of his eye, Luffy saw a building, slide and fall over. It had been cut in the middle like a piece of cake. “Zoro?”

Distantly he could hear sounds that clearly were the cause of a battle. Luffy looked back at the building for a second, before deciding that he would get his counterpart later, and turned on gear second, to get to the commotion faster.

Arriving at his destination, which was at another groove neighboring the amusement park, Luffy came across the sight of hunderts of marines being cut down by his First Mate.

Zoro was clearly trying to reach something, but the marines were blocking his way, “Hurt him and I’ll kill you!”

Confused, Luffy switched his sight to the direction Zoro was looking at and dropped his jaw at the sight.

Sora was wrapped in a big white smoke cloud, which was connected to Smokers arm. He was struggling to free himself, but his armament haki was not yet strong enough to work every time he wanted it to.

“You know where he is right? Tell me where my brother is and I won’t choke you to death right here and right now.” Smoker growled, smoke wrapping more and more of Soras body.

“Fuck.. you,... I won’t tell... you shit.”Sora choked out, stopping his struggles, since it didn’t help him in the slightest.

,Tch so annoying, I can’t even use my wide range attacks, because the civilians are still here.’ Zoro thought, trying to think of another way to get through the massive marine wall. His problem was solved pretty quickly, when they all started dropping down like flies, with their eyes rolled back and some even foaming in the mouth.

Tashigi froze at the sight of her comrades on the ground and dread settled in, when she realized the only ones left were her and Vice Admiral Smoker.

Zoro grinned, mentally thanking his Captain. He didn’t waste the opportunity to dash forward and cut through the smoke, freeing Sora from the logias clutches.

Smoker stepped back from the green haired man, who stood like a guard over the younger, “Why are you standing in my way of finding my brother? You should understand, better than anyone here, the worry I have for my younger brother.”

Zoro sighed, as Sora looked confused behind him. Just because they looked alike, didn’t mean they were brothers, but Zoro didn’t care enough to correct him.

“I’m sorry Smokey!” Luffys voice rang out from the edge of the crowd, gathering everyones attention.

Smokers eyes widened at the sight of his little brother walking towards him. He didn’t move a muscle until Luffy came to a halt in front of him.

Before Smoker could say a word, Luffy started talking again, “There’s a big misunderstanding here and it’s totally my fault. I’m not actually the Luf...”

This time it was Smokers turn to interrupt him, by wrapping him in his arms and pulling him to his chest, “You idiot, if it was a misunderstanding, then why did you run? Do you know how hard it was to be separated from a brother twice and not even know if he is alive and well?”

Luffy wiggled around in his grip and said, “Ah, this is kinda awkward.”

“Am I interrupting something?” Luffys voice rang out, but this time right behind Smoker, causing him to snap his head back and come face to face with a Luffy dressed in a marine uniform.

“Haah? There are two Luffys?” Tashigi questioned, her face showing bafflement.

Zoros laughter broke Smokers staring, causing him to release Luffy, turn back and take another look at the two green haired swordsman, “Someone please explain why there are two of him, because while I love my brother and all, I definitely don’t need a second Luffy.”

The twins indignant, “HEY!” didn’t help Zoros laughter, as he was doubled over cackling at this point.

Sora sighed, pushing the dumbass aside to explain the situation, “I’m Roronoa Zoro from this world and this is Roronoa Zoro from another world. That one with the marine uniform is your brother Monkey D Luffy and the other one is not your brother, but he is still Monkey D Luffy and from another world. These two idiots somehow landed themselves into this dimension and are still trying to find a way back.”

Smokers disbelief was clearly written across his face, but there was also the proof right in front of him, “Were you impersonating my little brother this last month?”

Luffy sheepishly rubbed his head, “Yes, but only because the marines found me first and I couldn’t just tell them that I’m actually a pirate from another world.”

“Pirate!?!” Tashigi squeaked, recoiling from him.

“Haha yeah that he is, but he freed me and he’s leaving soon, so we don’t need to capture him right?” the marine asked, turning to his older brother.

The Vice Admiral looked at the puppy dog eyes on the pirate and reluctantly agreed with his brother.

“But, but Smoker-san, should we really let a pirate go?” Tashigi asked nervously.

“He doesn’t belong to our world, so he’s not our problem, Tashigi. Go call our men from the ship, so they can carry the unconscious ones back.” Smoker ordered, reached for his brother and grabbed him around the shoulder pulling him to his chest, much like he had done with the wrong double before. The marine gladly wrapped himself around his older brother, enjoying the warmth that was provided.

“Of course sir.” she grinned at the sight and ran off to do just as he ordered.

“We just have to come in contact right? Is that how you return?”

Luffy nodded at his counterparts question, “Yeah, the portal opened once before when Zoro came in contact with his counterpart, but we kinda had something to do at the time, so we couldn’t take that chance to go through.”

“Puru puru puru...”

Sora pulled out the ringing den den mushi out his pocket and answered, “Robin?”

“Yes, I’m guessing this is Sora, since I gave him the den den mushi, but you have the exact same voice as Zoro sooo...”

“No, it’s me.” Sora chuckled.

“Ah good, I actually just finished my meeting, I’m pretty sure Luffys counterpart is held captive somewhere on this island. Maybe you guys should actually split up to cover more searching ground.”

“Hello, whoever you are, I’m actually already free, but thanks for trying to help.” Luffy jumped into the conversation.

“Oh, I’m guessing that means you’ll be leaving soon. Too bad I couldn’t say goodbye in person, but it would probably be for the best if you take your chance to leave, it could very well be your only one.”

“Alright, thanks Robin. It was fun working with you. Take care.” Luffy said accepting the streched out hand of his counterpart, not before removing his gloves. They briefly held contact, before letting go.

Robins voice answered back from the still open call, “Of course, you take care too, especially of Sora, that boy drinks too much.”

“Shishishi, I’ll protect him from others, but I don’t know how much I can protect him from alcohol.” Luffy said, as the call ended and the portal finally appeared behind him, together with Hikari.

Smoker and marine Luffy stared in surprise and wonder at the sight.

Sora looked confused at Luffys voice, “I don’t think you can really influence my alcohol intake from a different dimension.”

“Idiot, did you think we were leaving you behind here? You’re coming with us.” Zoro said, grabbing his wrist and dragging him to the portal.

Hikari tilted her head to the side, watching in interest.

Sora pulled back stopping them in their tracks, “But I’m from this dimension, I don’t think I’m just allowed to jump to a different world and live however I feel like. Besides, you already have a Zoro in your world.”

Luffy could clearly hear the despair in Soras voice, so he said, “We’re pirates, not following the rules is what we do. You’re Sora now, so it doesn’t matter if we already have a Zoro, because you’re not the same person. To be honest, even if you were an exact copy, you can never have too many Zoros on your crew.”

The aforementioned Swordsmans face turned beat red and he glared at the ground, trying to cover his blush.

“Besides, when you said you would follow me to the ends of the world, I didn’t think you only meant for this dimension.” Luffy continued.

Zoro snapped his head back and looked at Sora, “You actually said that? Jeez, how mushy.”

Now it was Soras turn to blush as he angrily shoved the laughing Zoro aside, but turned his attention back to Luffy.

“So, what do you say? Won’t you join the Straw Hat Pirates, become our nakama and go on awesome adventures with us?”

Everyone, even Hikari stared at Sora, waiting for his answer.

...

“And your crew won’t mind either?” Sora asked meekly.

Zoro answered before Luffy could, “I’m sure they won’t and even if they did, who cares? Luffy is the Captain so he decides who gets to join and no one can object to his decisions.”

Sora breath in and out before finally saying, “Alright, I guess I’ll join your ragtag crew. How many members do you even have?”

“Excluding the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, with you added we’re now 11, with the Grand Fleet we’re 5.611 members.” Luffy stated causing Smoker, his little brother and Soras jaw to drop.

“Did Luffy not mention that he was a Yonko?” Zoro slyly added in, loving the shock on his counterparts face.

“No, no he surely didn’t. How did he even become one?” Sora asked, his eyes now positively shining in wonder.

“We took down Kaido, although it was the combined effort of us and our alliance partners, but Luffy gave the most damage and dealt the finishing blow. Our bounties shot up, but Luffys still isn’t nearly as much as the other Yonkos, since he didn’t take down Kaido alone.” Zoro explained.

Smoker rubbed the back of his head in frustration and glared at the trio, “Please just leave before you give me a bigger headache.”

“As entertaining as this is, I’ll be taking my leave now. Go now, if you don’t wanna be stuck here forever.” The till now quite Hikari said, before disappearing again.

“Whatever, old hag. Goodbye Smoker, Luffy.” Luffy bid his last goodbyes and grabbing both his first and currently last member by their wrist, he dragged them through the portal, as his counterpart waved behind him cheerily.

Smoker and Luffy watched as the trio left and the portal disappeared behind them. A second later, Tashigi appeared with a group of marines, who immediately started gathering their unconscious crewmates.

She walked next to the duo and stared at Luffy for a second before frowning, “Ah this reminds me, you will have to speak with Nami, because she’s been sulking in her room ever since you.. I mean your counterpart betrayed us. She took it really hard and might punch you the moment you return to base.”

Luffy groaned, swiping a palm down his face, “What did my counterpart say to her?”

Smoker shrugged, pushing him along as he walked back to the ship, “No idea, guess you’ll have to ask her yourself. Don’t worry, we have really good doctors in our base, so they’ll patch you back up after she beats your ass.”

“How lucky I am to have such a great protective brother.” Luffy sarcastically said, walking and laughing with his big brother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At first I was gonna stop before Sora answered, but then I realized that I was tricking no one. Obviously he’s coming along. It would be an asshole move of me to leave him behind. I have not wrote the last chapter yet, but I know theres not much left to the story, except Sora meeting the crew.


	19. Chapter 19

The Thousand Sunny was sailing back to Wano, after Robin had called to tell them about Zoros disappearance. It had taken them quite a long time to return, since they had been pretty far away when they got the call, but with Namis navigation skills it was smooth sailing.

“It’ll take around another hour before we reach Wano, prepare to sail through the waterfall entrance Franky.” Nami ordered, standing next to the helm which Franky was manning.

“Roger that.” Franky said.

Sanji stepped out of the kitchen, after finishing cleaning up the dishes left from their dinner. Taking out a cigarette, he realxed at the first puff and enjoyed Brook playing his violin.

Usopp was sitting on the lawn and fiddling with his slingshot, until a flash ,from the corner of his eye, caught his attention.

A bright light flashed beneath the door of the mens bedroom as Usopp stared at it, it held for a whole minute before disappearing.

Usopp swept his eyes on the deck and saw that all his nakama were outside, so it wasn’t one of them turning the light on and off in the mens bedroom. His eyes widened, a drop of sweat slid down his back and he jumped up with his slingshot ready to shoot, when the door started slowly creaking open.

Sanji immediately sensed Usopps unease and when he saw his attack position, he immediately jumped down to the lower level, to stand by him.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, but before Usopp could answer, the door fully opened and they came face to face with someone really familiar.

“Zoro?” The Sniper asked, shocked at the newcomers appearance.

“That’s not Mosshead, look at him again Usopp.” The Cook said, scrutinizing the green haired mens appearance.

At this point the other three had gathered behind them, after making sure the Sunny would stay on course.

“Yes, but actually no. I.. I’m kinda the Zoro from another dimension.” Sora said, finally stepping out of the dark room, letting the crew have a better look at him.

“Yeah sure, I’m the liar here buddy and even I have never said something this unbelievable. You must be some kind of imposter or.... are you Zoros brother by any chance?” Usopp lowered his slingshot, while he was still wary of the newcomer, he felt safer with his nakama backing him up.

“If I was his brother, don’t you think I would have just said so instead of saying I was from another dimension? Look, I don’t know why I landed on your ship when I went through the light portal, but I went through it with Zoro and Luffy, and it seems like we somehow got separated on the way through. I mean you no harm and I would greatly appreciate it if you could take me along just until the next island.” Sora explained, looking interestedly at Nami and Frankys doubles.

He waited for a few seconds before realizing they were too shocked to answer, “Did I say something wrong? Please don’t tell me I landed on a ship that belongs to some enemies of Luffy.”

Sanji crossed his arms and asked, “And what if we are? Are you gonna say that Zoro and Luffy are not actually your friends, just to save your ass?”

Sora sighed pulling out his twin katanas and switching to an attack position, “I didn’t want to cause trouble for my crew the moment I came to this world, but I won’t let you insinuate that I’m a traitor. Luffy is my Captain and if you’re his enemy, then you’re mine too.”

Sora gritted his teeth, it was five against one and the blond one looked to be the strongest one, from the aura of confidence and indifference he was giving off.

Sanji burst out laughing, Usopps eyes widened, Nami sighed, rolling her eyes and Franky and Brook grinned at the perplexed Sora.

“So Luffy disappears, ends up picking another crew member and it’s none other then Zoros counterpart? Please tell me your sense of direction is not none existent like that morons.” Nami asked, eyes hopefully looking at him.

“I .. I don’t understand... who are you guys?” Sora asked, deciding to clear some things up.

Franky answered this time, “You’re on board the beautiful Thousand Sunny, the ship of the Straw Hat Pirates, which would be us. I’m Franky the Shipwright, the blondie is Sanji our Cook, Nami our redhead Navigator, Brook our skeleton Musician and Usopp our afro wearing Sniper. Another three members are on Wano and it seems you already met our First Mate and Captain.”

“... You’re Luffys crew.” Sora said with realization, putting away his katanas. He smiled sheepishly at the group, scratching his head.

“Holy shit, you mean when Luffy disappeared, he actually went to another dimension and somehow came across you, Zoros counterpart and decided to bring you back with him? And Zoro himself also went dimension traveling?” Usopp asked, wondering why no one else was surprised like him.

“Hmm, yeah I guess so. I go by Sora now, since it would be weird to have two Zoros in a crew. Speaking of, you don’t mind do you?” Sora asked, his self consciousness appearing again.

“Yohohoho, Luffy is a good judge of character, so if he thinks you’re good enough to join us, then I’m sure we’ll get along great. Which reminds me, I wonder where Luffy and Zoro ended up after going through the portal.” Brook stepped up next to Sora, easily towering over him.

“Let’s just hope that they landed on Wano or something. I’m tired of searching for missing people. Oh, by the way, welcome to the crew Sora.” Nami gave him a friendly smile, before walking to the helm, to make sure they were still on course.

Soras stomach growled loudly, causing him to blush profusely.

“Any allergies?”

“Excuse me?”

“I need to know if you’re allergic to something before I start cooking for you.”

“But we just met and you’re already offering to cook me something?” Sora asked wide eyed, causing the other three guys to chuckle.

Sanji motioned for Sora to follow him and started walking up to the kitchen, “I’m the Cook of this ship, which means I have to feed my nakama when they get hungry, which now also includes you. No matter what time of the day, if you’re hungry just tell me. If I hear your stomach growling and don’t see you eat anything, I’ll kick your ass.”

Sora smiled as he followed the Cook to the kitchen. He might just fit in here quite nicely.

Around an hour later.

„Come on Chopper, this is the 12th time you‘ve burst into tears this month, you have to calm down.“ Robin was waiting at the hidden port of Wano, with the little sobbing reindeer in her arms.

„I‘m sorry for being such a cry baby, but Robiiiin, Zoro is gone too now. Are you gonna disappear next? Please don’t go.“ Chopper choked out, pressing his fury face into her neck.

Robin gently rubbed his back, „You don’t have to apologize for crying Chopper, it’s okey. Besides, no one is disappearing, our Captain and First Mate merely went on an adventure without us and they‘ll surely be back soon.“

Choppers teary eyes looked up at her and he asked, „You really think so?“

Robin smiled down at him, „I know so.“

„Robin-chan“ Sanjis voice rang out, as Robin, Chopper and the till now quite Jinbe turned their attention to the dock and saw the Thousand Sunny come closer by the second.

Sanji was waving at them frantically from the ship with hearts in his eyes. As the ship neared, Jinbe helped the crew dock and one by one they descended from the ladder down to the docks.

It didn’t take more then a second for Robin, Jinbe and Chopper to see Sora and before Robin could do anything, her arms were void of the reindeer.

Sora felt something crash into his chest and instinctively he grabbed the offending object, but before he could try to pry it off his chest, he froze at hearing a sob come from it.

“Zooorooo, you’re back. I thought I would never see you again. You bastard, why did you leave to search for Luffy without us?” Chopper asked, after sobbing into his chest for a few seconds.

Sora looked at the others, silently asking for help.

Robin stepped up and gently pried the Doctor away from him, “Chopper, I’m afraid you have the wrong person.”

The little reindeer looked confused at her face, before turning to inspect Soras face again. He put his hooves on the sides of his face and pulled him closer. He turned Soras surprised face side to side with confusion on his face.

Nami stepped up and plucked the reindeer from Robins grasp and motioned at the green haired swordsman, “Let me introduce, this is Roronoa Sora, Zoros counterpart from another dimension, who Luffy befriended and now he is part of our crew. Luffy and Zoro are also back from their dimension traveling, we just have to find them.”

Chopper sunk deeper into Namis arms, embarrassed at having hugged and cried into the chest of the wrong person, “I’m sorry, I thought you were Zoro.”

Sora immediately crumbled at the trembling lower lip and teary eyes. The next moment, Nami was surprised at the emptiness in her arms, but smiled at the sight of Sora cuddling an embarrassed and squealing Chopper, “You’re too fucking cute, it must be illegal.”

Robin chuckled, “When I mentioned my different dimension theory, I didn’t really think that it was the case, but I guess he is proof enough.”

“His aura is scarely similar and yet so different from Zoros, but I can see why Luffy would have decided to bring him along.” Jinbe said, while Sora rubbed his cheek against Choppers, eliciting another squeal of joy from him.

Sora looked up at Robin and Jinbe, “You must be Robin, since you look exactly the same as your counterpart. Except for your hair, hers was white. Jinbe, when Luffy saved your counterpart and later told me that he was from another dimension, I knew he must be friends with you, but I didn’t think you were on his crew, since your counterpart was the Captain of his own pirate crew. I don’t think I’ve met your counterpart though.” he said, looking down at the bundle in his arms.

“I’m Tony Tony Chopper and I’m the Doctor.” Chopper beamed up at him, causing Sora to smile back.

“I was originally also the Captain of the Sun Pirates, until I decided to leave my position and join Luffy as his Helmsman. I believe he is the man who’s gonna be Pirate King and I want to accompany him on this journey.” Jinbe declared, causing Sora to smile even brighter. He couldn’t have chosen a better crew to join.

Meanwhile Robin was deep in thought, fiddling with her hair, ‘White hair huh, I wonder if she looked like our mother.’

Suddenly another light portal opened right next to the group, grabbing everyones attention.

Someone casually stepped through and looked surprised at the assembly before him.

“Zoro?!”

“Yo.” Zoro waved, like he hadn’t just come out of a doorway, which appeared out of thin air, “I see you’ve already befriended our newest member.”

The next second he was standing next to Sora, with his head between his arm and chest. 

“Ack, stop it with the noogies, you asshole.”

Zoro ignored his whining and rubbed his knuckles into Soras hair, before the younger finally freed himself from his clutches.

“Oh, is that so? Yo swirly brow, this guy is 17, so don’t give him any alcohol.”

Chopper who was smiling happily at the return of Zoro, gasped in wonder, “You’re 17? That means we’re the same age.”

Sanji puffed on another cigarette, “17? No wonder he looked so young. Alright, no alcohol for kids.”

“HEY! I’m turning 18 soon, I’m not a kid.”

“Still too young to drink.”

“I’m a pirate, I don’t have to follow the law. The only orders I have to follow are Luffys and he was the one who brought me alcohol in the first place.”

Sanji and Zoro shot each other a look before turning back to look at Sora.

“You made a good point, I’ll let you drink alcohol, but in moderate amounts.” Sanji relented, causing Sora to cheer in victory and flash Zoro the middle finger in retaliation.

A vein popped on Zoros head and Sanji laughed, “Hah, if you can anger him this easily more often, I’ll give you even more alcohol.”

Zoro interrupted their conversation, “What the hell? Are you two ganging up on me? You’re supposed to be on my side, brother.”

“Brother?” Multiple people asked at the same time.

“Yep, from now on you’re my younger brother. How else are we gonna explain to other people why we not only look really similar, but share the same last name. Most people automatically will assume that you’re my younger brother anyway and I don’t think it would be wise to tell others that you’re my counterpart from another dimension.”

“I think that it’s a great idea, it’s not like anyone could prove otherwise. We could keep the truth as our little secret.” Robin exclaimed, finally tearing her eyes away from the spot that the light portal had just disappeared from.

Usopp stepped past the group and started walking into the forest, “This brings us back to square one, finding Luffy.”

Sora passed Chopper of to Zoro, as they all started following Usopp. The little Doctor would make sure that Zoro didn’t get separated from the group and lost.

“Someone got Luffys vivre card with them, to check if he is back in our dimension yet?”

Jinbe pulled out a piece of paper at Namis question and watched it for movements. The vivre card didn’t move an inch and Jinbe sighed pocketing it again, “Sadly he must not be here yet, did Sora-san appear much earlier on the Sunny than Zoro-san?”

“Yeah, he appeared over an hour ago. Which means there’s a chance that Luffy could possibly appear an hour later or even much later or maybe earlier?! We’ll have to regularly check his vivre card, in case he doesn’t appear right next to us, like these two.” Brook supplied helpfully.

Nami took the lead and led them back to one of their many bases in Wano, “Let’s return to the main base for now and call the others to tell them to stop the search. I’m sure we’ll be reunited with our Captain, before the end of the day.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this was supposed to be the last chapter, but it was too long for my taste, so I split it into two chpaters. Also I like the fact that it’s gonna end at an even 20 chapter better.


	20. Chapter 20

Three hours passed, allies were notified of the situation and bonds were created between the newest member and the other members of the Straw Hat Pirates.

Usopp told him all about their journeys up until Wano, with the others occasionally interrupting him, when he was exaggerating the story too much, which wasn’t often, since they did have the craziest adventures of all the other pirate crews.

The sun had set and the crew had decided to camp outside, because of the beautiful skyline, with thousands of stars covering it.

They formed a circle around a bonfire, everyone was quite, but very much still awake. The missing presence of their Captain lay heavy in the atmosphere. Aside from Zoro and Sora, it had been over a month since the crew had last seen him. It didn’t feel right to have activities together, when their most important member was missing.

Speaking of the two green haired swordsman, they were sitting across from each other and Sora was inspecting the O Wazamono grade sword, Shusui, “It’s beautiful, I’m jealous you have such a cool katana.” 

“Want to have it?”

“What? Are you serious? You’re offering to give me one of your swords?” Sora asked, excited.

“Sure, I use the three sword style, so I have no use for a fourth sword. I was thinking of teaching you the three sword style, so you’ll need a third sword anyway. We both have Sandai Kitetsu, so I can’t give you that one. Wado Ichimonji you’ll get over my dead body and as much as I love Shusui, between Enma and Shusui, I think I’d rather keep Enma.”

“Hell yeah, thank you.... nii-san.” Sora said cheekily, winking at Zoro, as he strapped his new katana to his belt, next to the other two.

Zoro rolled his eyes at the title, but smiled nonetheless, “I’m juts glad our cursed swords haven’t reacted negatively to their double. I wouldn’t want to anger Sandai Kitetsu.” he said, putting a hand to the hilt of his cursed sword, but only feeling the usual calm energy.

While the duo was engrossed in their sword talk, everyone else was enjoying the sight of the starry sky, but their eyes all suddenly and simultaneously burned at the bright light flashing above them.

Only Zoro and Sora were sparred since they weren’t facing the sky.

The moment the light dimmed everyone looked back up and were greeted by the sight of a falling figure.

“Why does the portal have to appear in the freaking sky again?!” Luffy screamed, seconds before crashing next to the campsite.

The crew immediately gathered around him and stared at his sprawled out form, in the crater that he’d caused, at the moment of impact.

“Oh hey everyone, it’s been a while.”

The Strawhats immediately piled on top of him in a big group hug.

“Don’t go missing for that long again, bro.”

“Yohoho, you’re as lively as ever Luffy-san.”

“My, my Captain, you haven’t changed at all.”

“Waaah, I missed you so much Luffy.”

“You idiot, if you ever leave us behind again, I’ll raise your debt.”

“I have debt?”

“Luffy-kun, I’m glad that you’re back.”

“Shitty Captain, all you can do is make us worry.”

“You’re lucky you didn’t take longer to return. We would have needed to choose a new Captain, which obviously would have been me.”

“Shishishi, I’m sorry everyone, I won’t ever go through a mystery portal without you guys ever again. I certainly don’t regret going through this one though. Having Sora here is well worth it.” Luffy grinned and pulled Sora and Zoro into the group hug.

“So you’re telling me, that we searched through so many islands, just for his ass to show up back on Wano?” A voice interrupted the moment, they separated and turned around to see the Captain of the Kid Pirates himself, standing there with his crew behind him.

“Mugiwara-ya, where the hell were you for the last fucking month?” The Heart Pirates stepped into the clearing shortly after.

Luffy jumped up, walking to the two fellow Supernova, “Ah sorry, Torao, Jaggy, I had an adventure without you guys, but I’ll make sure to take you guys with me next time.”

“That’s not why I asked..., *sigh* you know what, it doesn’t even matter, but who the hell is that brat.” Law pointed at the younger green haired Swordsman.

Sora stepped up next to his new Captain and introduced himself, “Yo, I’m Roronoa Sora, gonna be 18 soon, so don’t call me a brat or I’ll slit your throat. I’m the newest member on this guys crew,” he put his arm around Luffys shoulder, “and that’s all you need to know, Raccoon looking ass.”

Kid burst out laughing at Soras blatant jab, while Law narrowed his eyes and mumbled, “I have insomnia, it’s not my fault I have dark under eyes.”

“Excuse my younger brother, he can be a little shit sometimes.” Zoro slapped Sora on the back of his head, getting an indignant, “HEY” in return.

Law swept his eyes between the two, seeing the obvious similarities, but also the differences, “Oh, I didn’t know you had a younger brother, Zoro-ya.”

Zoro only shrugged in answer.

“So what’s next, since you’re back, from wherever you went, can we finally attack Blackbeard?” Kid asked nonchalantly, like he wasn’t declaring war on another Yonko, especially so soon after defeating another.

Law interrupted his plans, “Hell no I’m not going after Teach this soon. Give me a fucking break. We still have Big Mom after our ass, thanks to this Rubberbrain.”

“It’s not my fault that she decided to steal my Cook.”

“Pretty sure you declared war on her way back on Fishman Island.” Nami deadpanned and smacked Luffy across the head.

“Again, not my fault. I had to protect the island from her wrath.”

Jinbei smiled and said, “And I’m immensely grateful for that Captain.”

Luffy beamed up at him, before shooting piercing looks at Nami, “At least someone appreciates me here.”

Nami sighed, shaking her head, “Whatever you say Captain. It’s late though, so we should all go rest and talk about who we’re taking on next, in the morning.”

Kid left a day later, to set sail and Law left three days later. The Straw Hats stayed on Wano for another two weeks, before leaving as well. The three Captains had decided to sail by themselves and only regroup if they were planning to fight another Yonko.

In the two weeks time, Zoro had taught Sora the three sword style, with Sora learning everything eagerly. He wasn’t anywhere near as good at it, as he is with the two sword style, but he was slowly getting there. He’d also started on training in observation haki and furthering his armament haki, but those would still take at least a year or two to fully learn.

As they finally reached a new island, they had arrived at the worst or maybe best possible time. The civilians were trying to overthrow the corrupt marine officers base and were badly losing the fight. After learning all the details, Luffy, being the kind selfless idiot, decided to help them and thus the fight between the Straw Hat Pirates and a whole marine base went on for three hours, before the pirates came out as the victors.

As the townspeople were throwing a party for them in gratitude, another ship anchored at the shore line and a group of people donned in cloaks walked to the center of the town, where the party was being held.

Everyone tensed as they saw the mysterious group, but Luffy sensing his brother between them, immediately rocketed himself at Sabo.

“Sabooo”

The blond revolutionary effortlessly caught his little brother and pulled down his hood, together with the group behind him, “I was panicking since the sea threw us off course for a whole day and made us late to the fight, but what do I find? My little brother has already taken down the marine base. Luffy you really are something.”

Soras eyes, who were seconds before filled with suspicion by the groups appearance, now shined with understanding and recognition, as he saw the same blond, that he had seen on the moby dick, “Ah, so that’s your brother Luffy?”

Luffy freed his brother from his almost suffocating hug and turned to his newest member, “Yup, this Sabo my older brother. He is the Chief of Staff of the revolutionary army. Oh, and Sabo, this is Roronoa Sora, Zoros little brother and our newest member.”

“It’s nice to meet you. By the way, did you join willingly or did Luffy force you?” Sabo asked cheekily.

Luffy punched his arm and gave him a half-hearted glare, “I don’t force people to join my crew, I’m just a little more persistent than normal. None of you regret joining my crew right?”

The whole crew simultaneously shook their head and said, “No, never.”

“Except for the times when you insist on sailing to the most dangerous islands.”

Nami slapped Usopp over the head for his remark, “Ignore him, he’s just joking.”

In the span of the next two hours, Luffy had introduced Sabo to the towns major and he had, after a lot of persuasion, agreed to let the island be under the protection of the revolutionary army.

Word got out about the incident and not a day later, as the Straw Hats were leaving the island, the news coo came.

Nami payed for the newspaper and looked at the title page, where one again, Luffys smiling face was printed.

Beneath it, the story of how they had attacked a marine base was written and they were once again, portrayed as the bad guys.

What interested her more, was how they mentioned their newest member. As the crew gathered around her in interest, she started reading out loud, “The Straw Hat Pirates strike again. A mere day ago, they attacked a marine base and completely destroyed the building. The reason for their actions is still not known, since even though they’re pirates, these bunch never attack a base on a whim. Furthermore, a possibly new member has been sighted fighting alongside them. He has a strikingly similar look to their First Mate, Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro and he also goes by the name of Roronoa Sora. We have deduced that he is in fact, Zoros younger brother and we fear he might have the potential to become just as strong as him. We have included the newly issued bounty poster of him and the rest of the crew.”

Zoro grinned at Soras bounty poster, which depicted Sora with Shusui in his right hand and Sandai Kitetsu and Yubashiri still strapped to his side. It was a picture taken closer to the end of their battle as, Sora was smirking triumphantly at the Vice Admiral that he had defeated, laying beneath his feet. Luffy had decided to let Sora take him on, so he could gather more battle experience. Zoros grin grew further as he saw the bounty amount down below.

“200 million is insane for a first bounty.” Usopp squeaked in indignation.

Robin shrugged, “We are a Yonko crew, and they probably decided to give him a crazy bounty from the start, assuming he is on our overall strength level.”

Luffy draped himself over Soras back, “I’m so proud of you. Sora that’s such a cool picture.”

Sora smiled as the whole crew congratulated him, “Thank you for taking me with you Luffy, Zoro.”

“No problem, squirt.” Zoro said and ducked immediately under the punch that was coming towards his face in deadly speeds.

Luffy ignored Zoros laughter, as he dodged ever single one of Soras punches and declared that they were gonna have a party to celebrate Soras first bounty.

Sanji immediately went into the kitchen to cook a feast and Franky went to bring the sake.

Luffy threw himself at the green haired duo and wrapped his arms around them, “I love you guys, you now that?”

A blush took over both their faces, as they grumbled in annoyance, but didn’t move to free themselves from their Captains embrace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The End  
> Thank you all for reading this far. Even though I definitely made tons of grammatical mistakes, I hope that you still enjoyed it. If you have time, please leave a comment, I love to read your opinion. I have another finished story, so check that one out too, if you want something else to read. Special thanks to OtakuPie, for always leaving reviews. You were great motivation for me to finish writing this. <3


End file.
